Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Torrential rain floods train station in Sweden - While other parts of country suffer drought and wildfires


RT
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:22 UTC
sweden train station flood
© Thorén/hokeFlooded train station? Just swim on ducky float and ignore traffic chaos
Heavy rains across Sweden in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave have turned Uppsala Central Station into a swimming pool. While some commuters struggled to reach firm ground, others turned it into a Nordic Luau.

Water filled the corridors of the Uppsala main railway station following torrential summer rain, disrupting traffic at Sweden's fourth largest city on Sunday. While authorities and emergency services were dealing with the chaos, some locals decided to have some summer fun, splashing around the main escalator which leads into the station.

Wearing full snorkeling gear, local photographer Sarah Thorén snapped and recorded a video of her family swimming under the flooded bridge of the station.

Comment: Something is definitely awry with the weather when parts of the planet are parched by drought then scorched by wildfires only to then be awash with epic flooding:

Read More...
Sun

Emergency declared in El Salvador to ensure food supply in severe drought

Nelson Renteria
Reuters
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 11:30 UTC
El Salvador declares emergency to ensure food supply in severe drought
© Jose CabezasEl Salvador declares emergency to ensure food supply in severe drought
El Salvador on Tuesday began taking emergency measures in a drought that has plagued the country for a month and cost tens of thousands of farmers their corn crops, the civil protection agency said.

The east of the Central American country has gone 33 days without rain and temperatures have hit a record 41 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit), leaving many families without water.

The government declared a "red alert," meaning it will seek to use public funds to ensure food supplies and help farmers sow their crops again.

Jorge Melendez, head of Civil Protection, said that the lack of rain had affected more than half of El Salvador's municipalities and resulted in the loss of the equivalent of 1.5 million 60-kg bags of corn, a staple grain.

Authorities are also exploring whether other industries have been affected, such as coffee or cattle raising.

Comment: Meanwhile in Europe: "A threat to our livelihood": Record drought grips Germany's breadbasket

"Perfect storm": UK farming crisis as areas suffer worst drought for 225 years

Extreme weather affecting crop harvests in Europe - North too dry, south hit by hail

On the other side of the world in the southern hemisphere: Australia's worst drought in 116 years is decimating animals and livestock

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Man killed by lightning in Bulgaria


novinite.com
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 10:46 UTC
lightning
A man died after being struck by a lightning on Mount Orelyak in Pirin.

The Mountain Rescue Service in Bansko confirmed to the Bulgarian National Radio that the man had died on the spot. A report of an incident in the mountain over Gotse Delchev was received at the rescue service on duty in Bansko about 14 hours.

The weather in Pirin is not suitable for long trekking in the mountains, warns the mountain rescue service.

Comment: Also in the last few days a total of 9 people have been killed by lightning strikes across India.

Read More...
Biohazard

Mysterious, massive and deadly algae bloom 'whirlpool' discovered in the Baltic Sea

Mark Prigg
Daily Mail
Fri, 27 Jul 2018 23:23 UTC
baltic algae whirlpool
On July 18, 2018, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired a natural-color image (above) of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Finland, a section of the Baltic Sea. Note how the phytoplankton trace the edges of a vortex; it is possible that this ocean eddy is pumping up nutrients from the depths. For scale, a ship is shown. The swirling bloom is at least 15 miles across, which means New York City's Manhattan Island could fit inside it with a little room to spare.
The mysterious algae bloom 'whirlpool' in the Baltic Sea so big it could cover Manhattan

NASA has revealed an incredible image of a gigantic 'whirlpool' of algae in the Baltic sea.

Every summer, phytoplankton spread across the northern basins of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, with blooms spanning hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometers.

Blooms this summer off of Scandinavia seem to be particularly intense, NASA said.

The swirling bloom is at least 15 miles across, which means New York City's Manhattan Island could fit inside it with a little room to spare.

Researchers are unsure what is causing the strange pattern.

Comment: Every year there are more dead zones, the gulf stream becomes more sluggish, the jet stream meanders more erratically, storms increase and our climate becomes cooler - and it seems our planet has been through all of this before: Worldwide ocean anoxia driven by global cooling was possible factor in previous mass extinctions

See also:

Read More...
Attention

Second dead sperm whale in a month found off Kaikōura, New Zealand


Stuff
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 10:32 UTC
A dead sperm whale at Marfells beach earlier this month.
© SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFFA dead sperm whale at Marfells beach earlier this month.
Two sperm whales in a month have been found dead off the Kaikōura coast.

The latest sperm whale, found last weekend, was a member of the Kaikōura canyon population, as was a whale found dead on Marfells Beach, in south Marlborough, in early July.

A series of buoys was attached to the animal, but it was not possible to tow it to shore due to sea conditions.

It had not been seen since the weekend, when it was moving north, but Department of Conservation staff and harbourmasters knew to be on the lookout.

DOC South Marlborough operations manager Phil Bradfield said the whales underpinned the Kaikōura economy, and the deaths would be felt by local iwi who had a "profound attachment to whales".
Read More...
Fire

Greece wildfires called Europe's 'deadliest' in a century as rising death toll hits 91


RT
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 01:30 UTC
The aftermath of a wildfire is seen in Mati, Greece
© Aris Erdogdu / ReutersThe aftermath of a wildfire is seen in Mati, Greece July 24, 2018 in this photo obtained from social media on July 27, 2018.
The blaze that reduced the area to the east of Greece's capital to resemble a post-apocalyptic landscape has killed 91 people, the Greek officials confirmed. The death toll is likely to rise.

According to authorities, most of these people died as a result of the fire, while some drowned in the sea after fleeing the disaster.

The Greek Fire Service said that 25 people are still missing following a horrifying human and environmental disaster that hit the country's coastline close to Athens. The wildfires that devastated the southern European country last week were described as the deadliest in Europe since 1900, which makes them the worst such disaster in more than a century, according the Centre for the Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels.

The Greek authorities suspect that arson may have caused the fire and the government has come under criticism over its alleged lack of preparation for the fire season as well as over its inadequate infrastructure management.

More than 2,000 homes were damaged in the fire, Greek officials said on Friday, adding that about a quarter of these would have to be demolished. The popular seaside resort of Mati was one of the places most severely hit by the blaze.


Comment: See also: Situation critical in Greece as residents flee wildfires by jumping into the sea - At least 50 dead - UPDATES

Read More...
Fire

"A threat to our livelihood": Record drought grips Germany's breadbasket


Straits Times
Sun, 29 Jul 2018 11:37 UTC
Two men sunbathing at the Rhine River in Duesseldorf, Germany
© EPA-EFETwo men sunbathing at the Rhine River in Duesseldorf, Germany, on July 26, 2018
Withered sunflowers, scorched wheat fields, stunted cornstalks - the farmlands of northern Germany have borne the brunt of this year's extreme heat and record-low rainfall, triggering an epochal drought.

As the blazing sun beats down, combine harvesters working the normally fertile breadbasket of Saxony-Anhalt in former communist East Germany kick up giant clouds of dust as they roll over the cracked earth.

"It hasn't really rained since April and that's the main growth period for our grains and the other crops - we've never seen anything like it," said Juliane Stein of Agro Boerdegruen, a farming conglomerate formed after German reunification in 1990.

"We've reached the point here in Germany where we're talking about a natural disaster that's a threat to our livelihood."

Comment: We're barely halfway through summer and already it has been on of the driest on record for vast swathes of the northern hemisphere:
wildfires eu graph


Read More...
Footprints

1,000 kangaroos stampede across 'destroyed' Australian farm


RT
Sun, 29 Jul 2018 09:10 UTC
Kangaroos
An Australian farm owner has posted footage of what happens when you try to take back an animal paddock from a hoard of jumping kangaroos, showing the incredibly nimble critters in a stampede.

Filmed on a farm in Nymagee, New South Wales by Marie Harley last February, she said her family unwittingly provoked the stampede when they drove through the area in a 4x4 vehicle.

Harley and her parents had driven to the paddock where they keep rams to investigate how many kangaroos were now living in the area. Footage of what happened next has now been posted to Facebook racking up views of more than 830,000.

"We knew there was a massive amount of kangaroos in the 100 acre paddock we use for the rams, so Dad and I decided to take mum up in the old land cruiser for a look and took the iPad along with me," Harley told ViralHog.
Read More...
Attention

Polar bear attacks man on island of Svalbard, Norway


Tampa Bay Times
Sat, 28 Jul 2018 16:59 UTC
Authorities search the coastline, Saturday, July 28, 2018, after a polar bear attacked and injured a polar bear guard who was leading tourists off a cruise ship on the Svalbard archipelago archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
Authorities search the coastline, Saturday, July 28, 2018, after a polar bear attacked and injured a polar bear guard who was leading tourists off a cruise ship on the Svalbard archipelago archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
Norwegian authorities said a polar bear on Saturday attacked and injured a polar bear guard who was leading tourists off a cruise ship on an Arctic archipelago. The polar bear was shot dead by another employee, the cruise company said.

The Joint Rescue Coordination for Northern Norway tweeted that the attack occurred when the tourists from the MS Bremen cruise ship landed on the most northern island of the Svalbard archipelago, a region between mainland Norway and the North Pole that is known for its remote terrain, glaciers, reindeer and polar bears.

The German Hapag Lloyd Cruises company, which operates the MS Bremen, told The Associated Press that two polar bear guards from their ship went on the island and one of them "was attacked by a polar bear and injured on his head."
Read More...
Magnify

Arctic lake mysteriously disappears in Novaya Zemlya, Russia


Strange Sounds
Fri, 27 Jul 2018 12:00 UTC
Arctic lake mysteriously disappears on Novaya Zemlya
A lake has completely disappeared in Arctic Russia in July 2018. via Facebook
This is just incredible! An entire lake has disappeared on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean in northern Russia as reported by researchers from the project "The Open Ocean: Archipelagos of the Arctic". The expedition was sent in this remote area in an attempt to survey Lake Usacheva, but stumbled upon an empty reservoir with its bottom scarred by cracks and fissures.

A lake has completely disappeared in Arctic Russia in July 2018. via Facebook

Researchers report of their Facebook Page:

"We are not talking here about a small lake near the sea shore, which, for example, can break through the channel and drain into the sea, but about the large and deep lake Usacheva, that is at least 3 kilometers long, and a few kilometers distant from the sea. [...] The guys walked on the dried bottom of the lake for more than one and a half kilometers, and as shown in the photographs, it's a continuous clay desert, covered with a grid of cracks and fissures from erosion [...] "

Comment: In addition a Facebook comment noted the following (translated by Google):
I will also specify - here I collected a series of photos from 2016-2018, judging by which the main descent of the lake was in 2016, and then it was partially filled by July 2017

Similar examples of baffling changes to bodies of water have been documented all over the world:

Read More...