Earth ChangesS


Fire

Wildfire rages in Ibiza town, Spain

The fire sent smoke across Ibiza Town.
© IBANATThe fire sent smoke across Ibiza Town.
A wildfire raged out of control in the heart of Ibiza Town forcing several homes to be evacuated and blocking roads.

Flames six metres high were fuelled by strong gusts of wind as the fire spread from protected parkland in the centre of Ibiza Town threatening to engulf residential areas.

The fire broke out for reasons as yet unknown shortly before 1pm on Monday. The area where the fire raged is a protected wetland home to an estimated 140 species of bird.

It also served as an area popular with the homeless who slept out in makeshift shelters in the reeds and canes, according to El Mundo.

Fire

Three killed in Texas wildfire, blazes also strike Oklahoma and Colorado

Potter County wildfire.
© CNN VAN Potter County wildfire
Three ranch hands have been killed while trying to protect livestock from a wildfire in the Texas Panhandle, where blazes have scorched about 125,000 acres (50,585 hectares), officials said on Tuesday.

Wildfires driven by high winds and dry conditions have also hit Colorado and Oklahoma, prompting evacuations and destroying structures.

A woman and two men were killed on Monday in a fire that hit in Gray County, Texas. One was overcome by smoke and died in an area hospital and the other two died from burns, said County Judge Richard Peet.

"They were trying to move cattle away from the oncoming fire," he said in a telephone interview. The names of the three people have not yet been released.

The largest fire currently blazing in Texas is the so-called Perryton blaze that has covered 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) in the Texas Panhandle and is only 5 percent contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service, which tracks wildfires. That fire has destroyed two houses.

Fire

Wildfire burns 30,000 acres, destroys homes in Logan County, Colorado

fire
A wind-driven wildfire erupted on the eastern plains of Colorado on Monday, scorching 30,000 acres of grassland, prompting the temporary evacuation of a small farming town and destroying at least three homes, emergency officials said.

The fire erupted around midday east of the town of Sterling and quickly grew out of control as gale-force winds fanned the flames, said Marilee Johnson, spokeswoman for the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

Mandatory evacuations were lifted for the town of Haxtun late in the afternoon but some 900 homes remain threatened and those residents have been warned to prepare to flee should shifting winds drive flames their way, she said.

The 30,000-acre fire was 50 percent contained, the Logan County Office of Emergency Management said in a statement.

Ice Cube

More powerful icebreakers needed in Baltic Sea despite global warming

Finnish icebreaker ship
© AFP 2017/ PAAL AARSAETHER
Oddly enough, global warming and milder winters have led to more severe ice conditions in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. Today, icebreakers are already struggling to get through towering compacted ice and the problem may become exacerbated in the future, unless more powerful icebreaking vessels step in.

As surprising as it may sound, milder winters don't make life easier for icebreakers. On the contrary, thaws alternating with bouts of frost are a nightmare for icebreaker fleets, Finnish experts found. During winters with a regular cold, solid ice grows to become 50-60 centimeters thick and is easy to get through. Although milder winter temperatures at first glance make ice thinner, it also leads to the formation of an ice crust, which, with the aid of harsh winds, grows to several meters of pack ice.

Snowflake

Avalanche hits French ski resort with several buried under snow

French ski resort of Tignes
© anthonnny_roland / Instagram
An avalanche in the French ski resort of Tignes has left several people buried under snow, local media have reported. The ski slope was closed following the incident with emergency services dispatched to search for those missing.

"According to witnesses, there are several people under the avalanche," police told Le Dauphine. The rescue operation is being made difficult by a lack of visibility which has prevented helicopters accessing the area. Rescue services have had to search on foot.

Photos taken at the location show skiers being evacuated from one of the resort's slopes.

Arrow Down

Sinkhole swallows house in Khutsong, South Africa

House fell into a sinkhole in Khutsong in the early hours of this morning.
© Malungelo BooiHouse fell into a sinkhole in Khutsong in the early hours of this morning.
The ground beneath the homes of residents on the West Rand of Johannesburg is in danger of swallowing them whole.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a massive sinkhole in Khutsong engulfed a house - fortunately no one was home at the time.

Several residents will be moved to emergency housing, while others have fled their homes after the Merafong Municipality identified at least 16 sinkholes in the area.


Attention

Dead sperm whale washes ashore in Warrenton, Oregon

dead whale
© Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium
A 36-foot sperm whale washed ashore near the Peter Iredale ship wreckage in Warrenton this week.Seaside Aquarium officials say the whale was first spotted off the coast of Newport last Tuesday, and then continued moving north due to strong winds. It was found about 4 miles west of Camp Rilea Sunday, and eventually washed ashore 2 miles north of the Peter Iredale wreckage Monday morning.

Officials say the whale has been dead for "quite some time." Everything aside from the whale's lower jaw will remain on the beach "for nature to take its course."The last sperm whale that washed ashore on the northern Oregon coast was in 2012.

Possession of the whale's bones is illegal.

Windsock

Powerful storm Zeus batters France, killing at least 2 and leaving 600,000 properties without electricity

storm Zeus hits France
© Francoise Blanchard/PresseOceanPowerful windstorm batters France on March 6, 2017.
Severe weather, including snowfalls and hurricane-force winds, has been affecting the central-southern and south-eastern areas of the France over the past 48 hours, causing at least two fatalities. Severe weather is forecast to continue affecting the country over the next 24 hours. The storm, named Zeus, will then exit into the Mediterranean Sea and rapidly deepen as it moves toward Italy. Severe to extremely severe wind gusts are expected this evening and tonight.

This powerful windstorm was produced by rapidly deepening cyclone coming from the British Isles toward Northern France this morning. An intense sting jet has developed within the cyclone, Severe Weather Europe reports, traveling right across Brittany, NW France.Meteo France has updated the number of departments on Orange alert to 31 this morning and urged residents to be vigilant, stay off the rooftops and secure objects that are liable to be blown away.

The departments on Orange alert, as of Monday morning, March 6, are: Cantal, Corse-du-Sud, Haute-Corse, Loire, Haute-Loire, Lozère, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Allier, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Cher, Corrèze, Côtes-d'Armor, Creuse, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Alpes-Maritimes, Dordogne, Gironde, and Var.

The agency said that significant damage could be caused by the wind as well as disruptions to local traffic. There is also a possibility of cuts to electricity and telephone lines, it warned.The town of Camaret, in Brittany, saw record-breaking winds of 193 km/h (120 mph) during Monday morning. Winds reaching 191 km/h (119 mph) were recorded in Ouessant, 180 km/h (112 mph) in l'Ile de Groix and 170 km/h (105 mph) in Pointe du Raz.

Comment: Some 600,000 properties lost electricity across France, according to power distributor Enedis, the highest such number since a monster storm in 1999 that left scores dead and three million households without power.


Cloud Precipitation

Dramatic images reveal 'catastrophic' damage to California's Oroville Dam

Oroville California spillway
© Dale Kolke /CA Dept. of Water Resources/Reuters/NewscomAn aerial view of the damaged Oroville Dam spillway site with a huge debris field in the diversion pool area just below the spillway on February 27, 2017 in Oroville, California.
Dramatic new images have revealed the extent of the damage to a spillway on California's tallest dam after weeks of torrential rains pummeled the region.

The images reveal catastrophic damage to the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam in northern California. The spillway, which is intended to serve as an outlet for overflow water, formed a hole on Feb. 12. But with heavy rainfall in the forecast and a reservoir that was already nearly full, the state's Department of Water Resources had no choice but to use the spillway to avoid causing a huge wall of water to overtop the dam. That would have caused deadly flooding in the communities below the dam, officials said.

Now, as the rain has stopped and water levels in Lake Oroville have dropped to low-enough levels to accommodate rain for the rest of the season, scientists are finally seeing the extensive damage from the huge cascade of water that battered the damaged spillway. [In Images: Dramatic Images of a Damaged Spillway]

Attention

Volcanoes are erupting across the planet; 35 currently active

Volcano
Already the climate change has raised concern among the people. Now the recent news of volcanoes erupting all over the world is baffling and may make things even more serious. Italy's Mount Etna as of late erupted with a large amount of magma amid what is presently its second emission in the most recent year. Mount Etna is been referred to as Europe's greatest and most capable spring of gushing lava, and its emission represents a peril to air activity and conceivably the encompassing towns and homes on the lower inclines of the well of lava.

Despite the fact that Mount Etna is the most recent fountain of liquid magma to stand out as truly newsworthy, there are various different emissions happening everywhere throughout the world. There has been news about volcanic eruptions from all over the planet. India's only volcano is dynamic again after having been dormant for 150 years, and four of Iceland's fundamental volcanoes are speculated to erupt soon. As indicated by Volcano Discovery, 35 volcanoes are either as of now ejecting at this moment or just as of late emitted everywhere throughout the world. There are significantly more volcanoes with eruption notices and huge amounts of different volcanoes that are dynamic, which means they could, in fact, emit at any moment.

Comment: Is there something much bigger happening on our planet? Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection: The Secret History of the World - Book 3