Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

2 killed as lightning strike ignites house fire in the Philippines

Angelo Caballero
ABS-CBN News
Sat, 26 Nov 2016 13:41 UTC
Lightning damage
Lightning struck a house here past midnight Saturday, allegedly igniting a fire which killed two people.

According to the Banggoy Fire Station, witnesses claimed that lightning hit the house of Eden Josephine David, the assistant regional director of the Department of Tourism-XI, at Purok 4, Barangay 33-D before the fire started.

The lightning possibly hit the main electricity line, causing fire to break out at the second floor of the house. It spread quickly as the house was made of light materials.

David's nine-year old son John Brent and their 19-year old housemaid Kimberly Luayon died in the fire.

David, her daughter, sister-in-law Imelda Motoc, and housemaid Rowena Arisgado sustained minor burns.

Another househelper identified as Reymar Sabordo suffered 3rd degree burns on her body.
Read More...
Question

Two large flashes light up night skies over Surgut, Western Siberia


Sott.net
Sat, 26 Nov 2016 07:28 UTC
Flashes over Surgut, Western Siberia
© YouTube/Igor Kessler
This video uploaded to YouTube shows two overhead flashes in Surgut, Western Siberia on 22nd November 2016. The description indicates a thunder-like crackling sound was also heard. Was this lightning or another type of electrical discharge? Or perhaps overhead meteor explosions?


Comment: Earlier this year unexplained flashes of light puzzled residents of Petrozavodsk, Russia.

Read More...
Ice Cube

100-year-old logbooks of polar explorers Scott and Shackleton prove Antarctic sea ice is not shrinking due to man-made climate change

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 22:04 UTC
The Endurance
The Endurance, trapped in sea ice
Antarctic sea ice had barely changed from where it was 100 years ago, scientists have discovered, after poring over the logbooks of great polar explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

Experts were concerned that ice at the South Pole had declined significantly since the 1950s, which they feared was driven by man-made climate change.

But new analysis suggests that conditions are now virtually identical to when the Terra Nova and Endurance sailed to the continent in the early 1900s, indicating that declines are part of a natural cycle and not the result of global warming.

It also explains why sea ice levels in the South Pole have begun to rise again in recent years, a trend which has left climate scientists scratching their heads.
Read More...
Attention

Popocatepetl volcano erupts sending ash plume 5 kilometers high


Strange Sounds
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:20 UTC
Strong eruption at Popocatepetl volcano on November 25, 2016.
© Toño Lorenzini Strong eruption at Popocatepetl volcano on November 25, 2016.
The Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico is entering an new phase of enhanced activity.

After several explosions at night, the volcano had a strong eruption ejecting ash and gas 5 km above the crater.

324 exhalations of low intensity have been recorded within the last 24 hours at Popocatepetl volcano. The most important occurred on November 24, 2016 at 11:05am.

At night, seven explosions happened at 00:14, 00:51, 01:37, 01:43, 03:16, 06:22 and 08:07 am, which increased the intensity of the incandescence and generated plumes less than 1 km in height.

Today, November 25, 2016, at 09:45 pm an explosion generated an eruptive column that reached 5 km above the crater.


Read More...
Cow

CCTV captures moment cow attacks man in Pakistan

Paddy Dinham
Daily Mail
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 16:07 UTC
The animal pins him up against the wall and then then sends him flying through the air with an almighty flip of its head
The animal pins him up against the wall and then then sends him flying through the air with an almighty flip of its head
This moody cow decided to take some frustration out on an innocent bystander while it was having a stroll down an alleyway.

The footage, shot in Pakistan, shows a man stood talking on his mobile phone next to a wall.

Wandering the streets of its own accord, the cow is seen heading down the same alleyway, seemingly minding its own business.

However, it clearly takes a disliking to something the man is doing, and pauses behind him.

After a couple of seconds of consideration, the cow instigates its vicious attack by digging its horns into him and catching the man, who has his back turned, completely unawares.


Comment: See also: No milk today: Rampaging cow sending man spinning through the air filmed in Nigeria

Read More...
Black Cat

Leopard enters village, attacks 8 in Gurugram, India

Shakir Mir
The Times of India
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 15:46 UTC
Leopard attack
© Manoj Kumar
A leopard was thrashed to death after it strayed into Mandawar village in Sohna, 26km south of Gurugram, and injured eight people on Thursday morning. The leopard, a two-and a-half-year-old male, sneaked in around 8am and kept villagers on their toes till noon with the forest department failing to tranquillise it and or capture it with nets.

The first to be attacked was Sundar Bharadwaj, a 46-year-old farmer. "I was tending to my field when the animal attacked me," said Bharadwaj. He noticed the leopard crouching furtively amid tall grass, before it lunged at him. He slipped his arms between its jaws, grabbing them while trying to fend off its deadly bite. During the struggle, he sustained grievous injuries on his shoulder and chest. Villagers later admitted him in Sohna's Civil Hospital.

When Bharadwaj spoke to TOI, he had a blood-soaked sling across his shoulder. According to other villagers, the leopard was first noticed in the morning by two farmers, Sumeet (21) and Rajesh (23), as they were returning from their fields. In panic, the duo raised an alarm. Scared, the leopard leapt into the compound of the Government Primary School, Mandawar. Luckily, the school was closed. "When we approached the big cat in a group, it ran away and hid inside a mound of hay," Desh Raj, a 20-year-old villager, said.
Read More...
Seismograph

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits northeast Tajikistan


dnaindia.com
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 15:31 UTC
Graph
Earthquake hits northeastern Tajikistan.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck northeastern Tajikistan, close to the borders with China and Kyrgyzstan, at 1424 GMT on Friday, the US Geological Survey said.

The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.8, struck at a depth of 75 kilometres.

Source: Reuters
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills two in Zambia

Buttyson Kandimba
Zambia Daily Mail
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 11:32 UTC
lightning
Two people of Mushona township in Zambezi district have died after being struck by lightning during a downpour.

Acting Zambezi district commissioner Sombo Chiteta said in an interview that the incident happened on Tuesday afternoon and he named the victims as Fulayi Lunkunu, 34, and Peter Luvuwa, aged nine.

"The information we got is that the two went to a nearby house to seek shelter when the rains started and that is where they died after being struck by lightning," she said.

Ms Chiteta said the house caught fire after it was struck by lightning.

The bodies are in the Zambezi District Hospital mortuary.
Read More...
Seismograph

Shallow earthquake of magnitude 5.4 hits Taiwan


The Indian Express
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 11:21 UTC
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The quake hit at 5:55 am (local time) and was centred 81 kilometres east of the city of Hualian at a depth of 10 kilometres, USGS said. The tremor comes after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in February left 117 dead when an apartment complex collapsed in the southern city of Tainan.

That quake also raised questions over shoddy construction — five people have been charged over the deadly building collapse. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A 6.3-magnitude quake that hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides. The island's worst quake disaster came in September 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed around 2,400 people.
Read More...
Windsock

Hurricane Otto hits Nicaragua, Costa Rica as major earthquake shakes region

Ivan Castro
Reuters
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 23:13 UTC
Hurricane Otto
© ReutersHurricane Otto is seen approaching the coast of Central America
Hurricane Otto battered Nicaragua and Costa Rica with powerful winds and torrential rains on Thursday, the same day a major earthquake shook the region, with homes damaged and thousands evacuated, but no deaths reported.

The storm was weakening rapidly on Thursday evening after hitting the southeastern coast of Nicaragua, and was expected to become a tropical storm by early Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning was also in effect in neighboring Costa Rica, where fallen trees, blackouts and flooding were reported.

Costa Rica's National Emergency Commission said thousands had been affected by the storm and emergency alerts had been issued throughout the country.

Otto, the seventh Atlantic hurricane of the season, landed north of the town of San Juan de Nicaragua as a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said. Thousands of people were evacuated from its path.

It had weakened to a Category 1 storm as of Thursday night, with top sustained winds of 75 mph (121 kph), about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of San Carlos, Nicaragua.

Soon after the storm landed, a 7.0 magnitude quake struck 93 miles (149 km) southwest of Puerto Triunfo, El Salvador, at a depth of 6.4 miles (10.3 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.


Comment: Otto was the southernmost hurricane on record to hit Central America. It also set a new record for the latest hurricane to ever form in the Caribbean.

The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) reported that the eye of Hurricane Otto made landfall in Costa Rica at around 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the northern Alajuela canton of Los Chiles, making it the country's first hurricane landfall in recorded history (since 1851).

Read More...