Earth ChangesS

Snowflake

Storm dumps 2 feet of snow in northern Arizona in 24 hours

A man with a snow blower trying to keep up with the fast-falling snow in Flagstaff.
A man with a snow blower trying to keep up with the fast-falling snow in Flagstaff.
In just one day, the National Weather Service in Flagstaff recorded 2 feet of snow. That's on top of the nearly foot-and-a-half of powder that fell over parts of northern Arizona the day before.

"So our winter storm warning is in effect through 11 p.m. [Thursday]," said NWS meteorologist Paige Konieczny. "And then similarly we have a winter weather advisory, for our northeastern portions of the state, also through 11 p.m. [Thursday]."

She expects there to be continuous snowfall into the first half of the weekend, with a possible break Friday morning.

Portions of a number of highways were closed Thursday afternoon due to weather, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.


Doberman

10-year-old girl mauled to death by stray dogs in Uttar Pradesh, India

dog attack
A 10-year-old girl was killed by a pack of stray dogs in Siddharth Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh. The incident has raised concerns about the growing issue of stray dog attacks in the region.

Cops confirmed that the minor identified as Tarannum, daughter of one Abid Ali and a Class 4 student, along with other kids was grazing goats when the stray dogs attacked her. She received over two dozen severe injuries all over her body, including her head.

Village head Vyas Pandey informed that the other children accompanying her managed to escape and raised an alarm, following which villagers reached the spot and rescued Tarannum. He added that the girl was cremated after a post-mortem examination on Thursday morning.

Circle officer (CO) of Itwa, Jairam confirmed the incident and said that police officials reached the village and contacted the girl's father to register a case but her parents refused to file a report.

Attention

Dead whale washes up on Huntington Beach shore in California

A 30-foot dead gray whale was spotted off Huntington Beach on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, likely washed ashore by the storms.
© Eric MeyerA 30-foot dead gray whale was spotted off Huntington Beach on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, likely washed ashore by the storms.
A dead whale washed up on the Huntington Beach shore Thursday.

Authorities said the whale had been decomposing for a while before they arrived. It's unclear how they are going to move the carcass.

It is in the north end of the Beach near the Bolsa Chica Reservoir.


Seismograph

Shallow 6.1 magnitude earthquake in the Kermadec Islands

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6.1 magnitude earthquake

UTC time: Friday, February 09, 2024 10:57 AM
Your time: Friday, February 9, 2024 at 10:57 AM GMT
Magnitude Type: mww
USGS page: M 6.1 - Kermadec Islands, New Zealand
USGS status: Reviewed by a seismologist
Reports from the public: 0 people

10 km depth

Cloud Precipitation

Death toll rises to 9 in California storms as mudslides ravage Los Angeles

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The death toll has increased to nine people during a massive, atmospheric river-driven storm in California as public officials warned people it was too soon to let their guard down.

The storm, which has unleashed biblical proportions of rain this week, was expected to continue until Thursday or Friday.

Four people were killed by falling trees, the California Office of Emergency Management said. Three were killed in vehicle collisions in the Bay area, and another fatality was due to a vehicle being swept away in a flood channel. One person lost their life by trying to cross the US-Mexico border via the Tijuana River.

Search and rescue crews are looking for a US Marine Corps helicopter which disappeared en route to San Diego on Tuesday night as the severe storm battered the region. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter, which had five Marines on board, was reported "overdue" after it failed to arrive at Miramar Air Station from Las Vegas, Nevada.


Fire

Iceland volcano erupts for third time since December

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A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted about two miles away from Grindavik, the town evacuated ahead of a previous eruption in December. Officials said there was no immediate threat to the population.


Binoculars

Raptors in freefall: Birds of prey experiencing population collapse across Africa

Secretarybird numbers have fallen by 80 per cent over a period of 30 years.
© GettySecretarybird numbers have fallen by 80 per cent over a period of 30 years.
Large raptors, including many species of eagle, are declining at alarming rates outside of protected areas in Africa, finds a new report.

Populations of 10 species with a body mass of more than 1.3kg have plummeted by 80 per cent over a period of 30 years, with those of another 11 species halving during the same time period.

As a result, the African hawk-eagle, designated as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List, should be reclassified as Critically Endangered, while Beaudouin's snake-eagle should go from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered, reports the paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Bateleurs, martial eagles and secretarybirds all suffered 80 per cent declines too.

Wolf

One dead and two wounded in Kenya hyena attack

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Marauding hyenas killed a man and wounded two people near a university outside the Kenyan capital, officials said Tuesday.

Anthony Pasha was dismembered and killed by hyenas while he was collecting firewood at a forest close to his home, according to family members.

"The hyena attacked him and it chased him away from the forest. He left his firewood and then the hyenas dragged him down this stream and finished him off here," said his cousin Kaaji Lesian.

Pasha's brother ran to his rescue after hearing screams from 21-year-old student, Kevin Mwenda, not knowing that his brother was also being attacked.

Arrow Down

At least 6 dead in Georgia landslide

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At least six people were killed and three were missing after a landslide in western Georgia, officials said on Wednesday.

The landslide happened in the early hours of the morning in the village of Nergeti, some 170 kilometres from the Black Sea nation's capital Tbilisi.

"The number of landslide victims rose to six," Georgia's emergency situations service said in a statement, adding that "a search operation is underway to find three missing people."

A previous toll announced four dead.


Attention

Non-stop rainfall causes over 8M gallons of raw sewage to spill onto LA streets, beaches

Long Beach, San Pedro, California
© Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesAll beaches in Long Beach and Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, Calif. are closed to swimmers and surfers through Wednesday due to sewage spills that poured millions of gallons of contaminated material into the ocean.
It's a crappy situation.

Non-stop pounding rain from a "Pineapple Express" storm caused a massive sewage spill into Los Angeles County streets and beaches, with health officials warning residents to stay away from coastal waters.

About eight million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Dominguez Channel โ€” a nearly 16-mile river that runs through Carson, Calif. โ€” which originated from two sewer locations, sanitation officials said.

The unprecedented rainfall, which brought anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of rain across Los Angeles, caused the overflow of raw sewage.

"The problem has been an extremely unusual amount of rainwater leaking into the county sewer system causing more flow than some sewer pipelines can handle," LA County Sanitation District spokesman Bryan Langpap told the LA Times.

On Tuesday, the overflow of sewage escaped manhole covers about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

The solid waste discharged into the Dominguez Channel and Compton Creek, which leads to the Los Angeles River and ends at Cabrillo Beach.

Comment: See also: Videos emerge from California show residents battling debris flows, mudslides, historic flooding