Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

12 killed in lightning strikes in Bihar, India

light
Twelve people were killed in lightning strikes in three districts of Bihar on Sunday, disaster management officials said.

Nine persons were killed in Saran district while two died in Jamui and one in Bhojpur, they said.

Eight people were also injured in Saran district and they are being treated at Chhapra Sadar Hospital, Superintendent of Police Hari Kishore Rai said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the deceased, an official release said.

Tornado1

The eastern Pacific Ocean just saw its earliest tropical cyclone on record

Tropical Depression 1E
© RAMMBThe above satellite image shows a tropical low churning southwest of Mexico on the morning of Friday, April 24, 2020. The low strengthened to Tropical Depression 1E on Saturday.
The eastern Pacific Ocean made history on Saturday with the formation of Tropical Depression One-E, the earliest tropical system ever recorded in the ocean basin. The premature depression developed about 900 miles off the southwestern coast of Mexico. The depression will remain far out to sea and should dissipate by Monday without affecting land.

Tropical Depression One-E formed three weeks before the official May 15 start of the eastern Pacific hurricane season. No storm on record has formed this early in the year in the basin, with reliable records here stretching back to the beginning of the satellite era in 1966, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters expect the tropical depression to maintain its strength before dissipating in the next day or two; however, if it does manage to strengthen into a tropical storm, its name will be Amanda.

Sun

Sky watchers across southeast Wisconsin treated to beautiful sun halo

Sun halo over SE WI
© Gin Prince
Monday afternoon brought a treat to sky watchers across SE Wisconsin; the sun was surrounded by a beautiful halo.

TMJ4 viewers sent the Storm Team lots of great photos.

A halo looks like a whitish ring surrounding the sun. Occasionally, onlookers can see some color in the halo, most often a reddish band in the inner portion of the ring.

This phenomena happens on days where high, thin clouds are present. These high cirrus clouds, which develop above 20,000 feet, are are composed of ice crystals. Halos are typically seen when these six-sided ice crystals have a random orientation. The sunlight is then dispersed through the ice crystals and the light is refracted, creating the halo.

Bug

Bugged: Earth's insect population shrinks 27% in 30 years

This undated photo provided by Michael Thomas in April 2020 shows a clouded sulphur butterfly in Cromwell, Conn.
© Mike ThomasThis undated photo provided by Michael Thomas in April 2020 shows a clouded sulphur butterfly in Cromwell, Conn.
The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research.

From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science.

That's a tinier population decline than found by some smaller localized studies, which had triggered fears of a so-called insect apocalypse. But it still adds up to something "awfully alarming," said entomologist Roel van Klink of the German Centre for Integrative Biology, the study's lead author.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills two farmers in Faridpur, Bangladesh

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Two farmers were killed after being struck by a lightning strike in Charbhadrasan upazila here on Friday.

The deceased were identified as Joynal Mollah, 39, son of Khaleque Mollah of Ramnagar village in Sadarpur Upazila, and Hashem Mollah, 61, son of late Tanu Mollah of Charbhadrasan.

Charbhadrasan Upazila Nirbahi Officer Jesmin Sultana said the two farmers lost their lives while grazing cattle in Mathavanga area of Charbhadrasan Sadar Union around 2pm.

"I've visited the spot immediately and handed over Tk 20,000 to each of the bereaved families as financial assistance," she added.

Fire

Massive forest fire in Qingdao, China

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A massive wild forest fire causes devastation and causes citizens to leave in Qingdao, Shangdong, China.


Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill at least 6 in Odisha, India

lightning
At least six persons were killed on Friday in separate lightning strikes in the state. The deaths were reported from Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Balasore districts. Bhubaneswar along with other places of the state received heavy rainfall on the day.

Three youths from Badapathara village under Khunta police station in Mayurbhanj district were killed in lightning strikes. The trio identified as Jaminikanta Mahanta, 22, Dibyashankara Mahanta, 26, and Koushish Mahanta, 19, had gone for fishing to a pond near their village at around 11am.

Fire services personnel reached the spot and admitted the youths to Khunta community health centre where the doctor declared them 'brought dead'.

Seismograph

Shallow 6.3-magnitude earthquake jolts off Papua New Guinea coast

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An earthquake measuring 6.3 magnitude struck 132 km from the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The tremor occurred at 12:53 p.m. local time west of Panguna town on Bougainville Island.

According to the USGS, the earthquake was recorded at 6.511 degrees south latitude and 154.301 degrees east longitude at a depth of 16.9 km.

So far there have been no reports or updates from any media agencies or government bodies regarding damage and no Tsunami warning had been issued at this time.

Source: Xinhua

Snowflake

Heavy spring blizzard hits northern China, biggest in decades say residents

Northern China blizzard
Spring has brought a blizzard to the door of many in northern China, trapping them inside.

The snowstorm over the last couple of days has covered large swathes of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia with localities raising red alerts for snowfall.

Some residents of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province say that they haven't seen so much snow in 20 or 30 years.

Footage from up north shows snow burying cars and blocking the doors of some houses, forcing people to climb out windows to escape.


Apple Green

Hailstones the size of apples batter the northern provinces of Vietnam

hail
A large hailstorm battered parts of the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam on April 23.

Dramatic footage shows an apple-sized hailstone.