Earth ChangesS


Windsock

Storm Knud brings hurricane strength winds to north Jutland, Denmark

storm knud
© Henning Bagger / Ritzau ScanpixStormen 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.

Tornado2

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

Dunrobin after a tornado touched down
© Mike Le Couteur/Global NewsDunrobin after a tornado touched down in the area on Sept. 21, 2018.
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.


Arrow Up

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

Ear Spring after an eruption of water and debris on September 15, 2018
© USGSEar 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.


Comment: Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser has now erupted eight times in less than three months intriguing scientists


Tornado1

Medicane expected to fully form east of Sardinia over next 24 hours

sardinia medicane
Latest model guidance, together with radar and satellite imagery is now in very good agreement on the developing tropical-like cyclone over the Tyrrhenian sea - a Medicane! Deep convection in ongoing around the centre of the cyclone and tightening pressure gradient is visible. The Medicane is expected to become better organized and more intense within the next 48 hours while it moves along the SE coast of Sardinia towards Tunisia.

Today's morning radar and satellite analysis: notice the pronounced cirrus clouds outflow across the SW quadrant of the cyclone, as well as interesting behaviour of the convective bands around the sistem.

Comment: While the US recovers from devastating Hurricane Florence, and parts of Asia recover from the extreme Typhoon Mangkhut, and while the UK and Ireland brace themselves for Storm Bronagh, merely 24 hours after Storm Ali passed, it seems the Mediterranean is up next.

See:
(July 2017) Eight tropical cyclones spinning simultaneously in the north Pacific Ocean for first time since 1974
(Nov 2017) Storm Numa may become a rare 'medicane' in the Mediterranean Sea


Fire

Mysterious burning hole with flames shooting out of it in Midway, Arkansas baffles geologists

Flames shot out of this hole near Midway, Arkansas
© Jared ChismFlames shot out of this hole near Midway, Arkansas, early Monday morning. No one yet knows what caused it.
It was an unusual call for the Midway Volunteer Fire Department.

A volleyball-sized hole was burning, with flames shooting out of it off Highway 5 South in Midway.

Fire Chief Don Tucker said, "A fire was burning roughly two feet in diameter, eight feet tall. And it burned for approximately 40 minutes."

The homeowner who lives nearby said he came outside Monday morning to flames shooting from the hole up to the man's nose on this billboard.

Now county leaders are trying to figure out how the phenomenon started.

Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass said, "We don't believe that the devil showed up, or the meteorites landed, or the big booms happened."

But the burning question is what caused the hole and the flames?

Pendergrass said, "We have contacted every utility company that is in the area. And we know for a fact now that they have lost no service they have nothing there. So there's nothing to do with utilities, which would be our first inclination to believe something was there."

No one knows where the hole ends.

Comment: Jim Sierzchula, Baxter County's emergency management coordinator and the fire chief for Grover township, said he thinks methane may have been the fuel, but he doesn't know what sparked the ignition.

"The thing is it was a clean burn," Siezchula said. "It was a very low-hydrocarbon fuel, let's put it that way. It really wasn't getting the right amount of oxygen because the burn was orange instead of blue."

Here's a small sample we've collected at sott.net of other recent natural outgassing related events: It is likely that outgassing of methane, hydrogen sulfide (and other natural gases) is coming up from deep below the earth's surface. See also:

SOTT Exclusive: The growing threat of underground fires and explosions


Attention

Iceland's Katla volcano charging up for eruption

The Katla volcano, hidden beneath the ice cap of Mýrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland, has historically erupted violently once every 40-80 years. In-as-much as it's last such eruption took place one hundred years ago, in 1918, Katla's next eruption is long overdue.
Katla Volcano
© FréttablaðiðAN ICE CAULDRON IN MÝRDALSJÖKULL Geothermal activity in the volcano’s caldera melts the glacier, creating cauldrons in the ice.
An eruption in Katla would dwarf the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, scientists have warned.

Sun

Sun dogs spotted in the skies of northeastern Ohio

Sun dog over OH
© Fox8
Some of our FOX 8 viewers saw a pretty cool sight in the sky on Sunday. A phenomenon known as a 'sun dog' occurred.

According to Cleveland State University research astronomer Jay Reynolds, sun dogs happen when the sun is 22 degrees above the horizon.

For some, it appeared to look like an upside-down rainbow; for others, it was a bright spot.
Sun dog over OH
© Jay Reynolds
Reynolds says sun dogs can happen any time of the year.

Sheeple

Millions of farm animals killed in flooding from Hurricane Florence

North Carolina flooding
© Rodrigo Gutierrez / ReutersFarms flooded after the passing of Hurricane Florence in North Carolina
Millions of birds and thousands of pigs have died as a result of Hurricane Florence, according to North Carolina agriculture officials. That number may rise due to additional flooding.

An estimated 3.4 million chickens and turkeys, as well as 5,500 pigs, have been lost as a result of the flooding, according to a preliminary report by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. There were no estimates of crop losses.

North Carolina is one of the top states in the nation producing pork and poultry. The storm dumped more than 8 trillion gallons of water on the state over a five-day period.

Info

Invasive mosquitoes are 'spreading like wildfire' across California

aedes mosquito
© Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images

If the threat of climate change took the form of a high-pitched whine just behind U.S. politicians' ears, we would already have the policies in place to stop it. Instead, it's the consequences of climate change, not the threat, that have more of us cringing away from the dopplered song of a bloodsucker: "eeeeeeeEEEEEeeeee!"

Invasive mosquitoes of the Aedes genus - Aedes aegyptai and Aedes albopictus, which thrive throughout tropical regions - are moving farther and farther north into California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

As Susanne Kluh, a public disease-control officer, told the paper: "They are spreading like wildfire. Our phones are exploding."

Comment: See also:


Bug

Thousands of spiders descend on Greek town and cover it with 300-meter-long cobweb

spider webs
© Giannis Giannakopoulos / YouTube
Those suffering from Arachnophobia or who are just not fond of the eight-legged creatures should, for a while, stay clear of visiting Western Greece, where a 300-meter-long cobweb covered the coastal area in the town of Aitoliko.

The breathtaking scenery of clear blue Mediterranean Sea waters in Aitoliko has been spoiled by a massive spiderweb, which has sprung up next to a lagoon on the shores of the town. Footage of the phenomenon shows endless layers of mesh covering the trees, the ground and all the objects in the immediate vicinity of the beach.

Locals blame Tetragnatha spiders - and their quest to create large nests for mating - for spoiling the majestic scenery. Humidity and the spread of mosquitoes, providing excessive nutrition to the eight-legged creature population, may also have contributed to the unusual cobwebs smothering the plateau and its flora.

Comment: See also: