Earth Changes

'It's pretty stressful': Snow threatens northwest Saskatchewan harvest

Adam Hunter ·
CBC News
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:46 UTC

© Devon Walker
This isn't a picture from last winter — this is what Devon Walker's swather looks like on the last day of summer.

Farmers in region have less than 10% of crops combined after September snowfall

You can hear the frustration in Devon Walker's voice. He wants to be in the field harvesting his crop. The problem is it's under more than inch of snow.

"It's pretty stressful," Walker said from his farm near Lashburn, Sask., about 225 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

While producers in southern Saskatchewan have, on average, more than 80 per cent of their crop in the bin, the northwest is another story entirely.

According to the most recent crop report from the Ministry of Agriculture, only 17 per cent of the crop the northwest region has been combined.

Comment: A taste of the future: 'Disbelief' as snow hits and northern Alberta farmers scramble to save crops worth millions

Towering waterspout filmed off the coast of Malta

David Grech Urpani
Lovin Malta
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 13:23 UTC

PHOTO FROM A VIDEO SHOT AND UPLOADED BY KURT FITENI

Social media has just been lit up with various photos and videos of a towering waterspout over the south of Malta.

While some shots were taken from Marsascala, another video uploaded on popular Facebook forum The Salott at around noon showed what the waterspout looked like from the Xagħjra promenade. At a point, as fast as it appeared, the waterspout dispersed back into the clouds.

Waterspouts can be formed by severe thunderstorms, but are even more commonly associated with developing storm systems. The clouds from which they descend are rarely fast-moving, and that makes waterspouts very easy to spot and film since they are often static.

Waterspout filmed off Subic, Philippines

Joanna Aglibot
Inquirer.net
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 13:06 UTC

© Kissak Lagseng Espiritu
Residents near Subic Bay captured photographs and videos of the waterspout formed over the sea.

Residents here were delighted when they spotted a waterspout off the coast of this town on Thursday afternoon.

Danilo Macamay, head of Subic Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the waterspout was formed over Subic Bay around 3:30 p.m.

To the casual observer, waterspouts look like tornadoes. The phenomenon is actually a vortex of rotating water.

Some residents captured the waterspout on video which went viral on social media.

Macamay said the waterspout quickly dissipated.

Residents in nearby Olongapo City also reported seeing the waterspout after experiencing strong gusts of wind that lasted for about a minute.

Hailstorm wreaks havoc on crops in North Kashmir

Sabreen Ashraf
Rising Kashmir
Mon, 17 Sep 2018 12:17 UTC

Over 35 per cent crop damaged in Sopore: officials

Nearly 45 per cent of fruits and paddy crops have suffered damage due to the recent hailstorm that hit areas of Sopore and Handwara in north Kashmir.

The Apple rich town Sopore has suffered around 35 per cent damage to fruit and paddy crops due to the hailstorm, according to officials. According to official assessment, some 7 to 9 per cent fruit crop and 15 to 25 per cent paddy crop has been damaged in hail storm that hit areas of Handwara in Kupwara district.

In Sopore, Goomahmadpora, Kitchilora, Waripora, Lalpora, Malmu, Agrikalan, Dangerpora, Noripora, Malbuchan, Tunjihearan, Tantrepora, Kongamdara, Nowlari areas were badly affected by the hailstorm.

"More than 35 per cent damage has been caused to the crops in these areas. Mostly apples were affected by the hailstorm," Chief Agricultural Officer Sopore, Farooq Ahmad told Rising Kashmir.

He said that the agriculture department has issued an advisory to farmers regarding the crops that were less affected by hailstorm.

Dozens killed by flooding in northern regions of Ghana

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 11:52 UTC

Long-term heavy rainfall combined with water releases from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, have caused severe flooding in northern Ghana over the past few weeks.

Ghana's National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) said that at least 34 people have died. The country's northern regions - Upper West, Upper East and Northern - have all been affected. Local media reported that as many as 100,000 people have been displaced.

Much of the flooding is a result of the overflowing White Volta river. Releases from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso over the last few weeks have increased levels of the river in northern Ghana. SONABEL, the power utility in Burkina Faso with responsibility for the Bagre Dam, started releases in late August after heavy rainfall in catchment areas had increased dam levels.

Deadly flash floods in Constantine and Tebessa, Algeria

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 11:35 UTC

At least 3 people have died in flash flooding in Algeria during the past week.

Heavy rain caused flash floods in the city of Constantine, Constantine Province in north eastern Algeria on Wednesday 19 September, 2018.

Algeria Press Service (APS) reported that 2 people were found the dead after their vehicle was swept away by flooding on the N27 road between Constantine and Hamma Bouziane. APS said the Ziad wadi had flooded the road after heavy rain.

Civil Protection units were deployed to affected areas and have rescued at least 11 people who were stranded in their cars. Several roads have been closed and material damage also reported.

Seven dead after major flash floods hit Culiacan, Mexico - Los Mochis receives 40% of its annual rainfall in ONE day

Mexico News Daily
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 17:35 UTC

Flooded streets yesterday in Sinaloa, Mexico.

In just one day, Los Mochis saw 40% of its annual rainfall

At least seven people have died due to flooding caused by torrential rain in the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua, authorities reported.

Sinaloa Civil Protection chief Juan Francisco Vega Meza said that at least four people had died in that state following heavy rains brought on by tropical depression 19-E.

Three deaths occurred in the state capital Culiacán, where three people are missing.

Another person died in the municipality of Ahome, where as much as 359 millimeters of rain have fallen over the past 24 hours.

Streets of the municipal seat of Los Mochis were inundated and access to parts of the neighboring municipality of El Fuerte have been cut off.

"It has been a complex situation because we were presented with an atypical phenomenon; we hadn't received a quantity of rain like this before. In just one day, [the rain that fell in] Los Mochis represented 40% of the rain it has received in the whole year and in Culiacán, it was 30%," Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz said in a television interview.

Storm Knud brings hurricane strength winds to north Jutland, Denmark

Sebastian Pelt
TV 2
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 20:08 UTC

© Henning Bagger / Ritzau Scanpix
Stormen Knud hits Nørre Vorupør south of Hanstholm on Friday, September 21, 2018. The DMI has announced wind hurricanes of hurricane strength at the West Coast.

In the northwestern part of Jutland, the wind reached storm power, while the winds have reached hurricane strength.

The storm Knud has shrugged in the wood crowns and torn in the backwaters of northwestern Jutland a large part of Friday afternoon and evening. In this area, meanwhile, measured mean winds of regular storms and winds of hurricane strength.

The wind reached the first time at 15:30 in Hanstholm, when the wind speed exceeded 24.4 meters per second, which is the limit of storm.

Since then, the mean wind reached 26 meters per second, while the wind blasts peaked at 34.5 meters per second, which is hurricane strength.

In the evening, the wind also reached storm strength in Hirtshals - also at 26 meters per second, while the gusts reached 32.9 meters per second.

Several other places in the northwestern part of the country, the wind has hit a stormy storm with a storm and a strong storm - and on Bornholm, too, a lot of weather was felt when Knud threw 28.6 meters per second.

At least 2 tornadoes touch down near Ottawa; about 272,000 without power in Ontario and Quebec

Jesse Ferreras
Globalnews.ca
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 00:22 UTC

The Ottawa airport was on backup power and social media lit up with video and photos of damage from tornadoes near the nation's capital on Friday.

Global News meteorologist confirmed that there were at least two tornadoes near Ottawa - one in the Dunrobin area, another in Gatineau.

Environment Canada confirmed that a tornado touched down in Dunrobin and Gatineau, Que.

The extreme weather came as a line of thunderstorms tracked across southern Ontario.

One storm intensified at Calabogie, and it showed the "classic radar signature of a tornado" by the time it arrived in Dunrobin.

The same tornado may have moved to Gatineau, but it's also possible that it lifted and then reformed there. It could also have been a single, long tornado that went all the way from Dunrobin to Gatineau.

Four patients suffered "serious traumatic" injuries in Ottawa and are currently being treated, according to Ottawa Paramedic Service. Two others suffered minor injuries and are currently in local hospitals.

Long-dormant Yellowstone hot spring erupts, highest spew since 1957

The Mercury News
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 20:28 UTC

© USGS
Ear Spring after an eruption of water and debris on September 15, 2018. The surrounding bacterial mats have been destroyed and large rocks are strewn around the area surrounding the spring.

A thermal spring near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park has erupted for the fourth time in the last 60 years, a park official said Thursday.

Ear Spring on Yellowstone's Geyser Hill went from being dormant on Saturday to spewing steam and water between 20 and 30 feet high, a height not recorded since 1957, said park spokesman Neal Herbert. It has since continued to erupt at a near-constant height of about 2 feet, he said.

Ear Spring, named for its resemblance to the shape of a human ear, is one of dozens of geysers, pools and hot springs in Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin - among the park's top attractions that feature the popular Old Faithful. It last erupted in 2004.

The eruption is among the new thermal activity seen over the last several days on Geyser Hill, just across the Firehole River from Old Faithful.

The activity includes new erupting vents and surface fractures, and it has led park officials to close a boardwalk in the popular Upper Geyser Basin to prevent people from being injured by scalding water splashing on the popular boardwalk trail.

Amid the increased activity, a park visitor was ticketed last Friday for his antics near Old Faithful. Ignoring rangers' warnings, the man - whom the park did not identify - lay down at the edge of the gurgling hole and at one point appeared to urinate into it. Rangers caught up with him after he eventually returned to the boardwalk.