Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Heavy snowfall grips most areas of China (VIDEO)


The Star Online
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 19:37 UTC
Aerial photo taken on Jan. 4, 2018 shows the snowy view at the Feicui Lake Park
© Xinhua/Guo ChenAerial photo taken on Jan. 4, 2018 shows the snowy view at the Feicui Lake Park in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. Many places across China saw snowfall from Wednesday.
Most parts of China experienced snowstorms on Jan 4 with east China's Jiangsu province being covered in snow for the first time this winter.

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Bizarro Earth

Brutal winds, high seas from storm Eleanor leave 55K homes without power and parts of Ireland completely flooded

Brynmor Pattison, David Coleman & Edel Hughes
Irish Mirror
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 08:48 UTC
Flooding Galway Storm Eleanor
Flooding in Galway caused by Storm Eleanor
Around 50,000 homes are now without power due to devastating Storm Eleanor.

Met Eireann was forced to issue and Status Orange alert - and it remain in place until 10pm tonight.

There is also a Status Yellow wind warning in place until 9pm tomorrow.

Storm Eleanor brought brutal gusts and high seas to a number of coastal communities today.

Met Eireann warned there could be flooding along coastal areas, as the weather front causes huge swells.

A forecaster said: "Storm Eleanor will quickly move across the country tomorrow evening and tomorrow night.

"West to southwest winds of mean speeds 65 to 80 km/h, gusting to 110 to 130 km/h, with damaging gusts are expected."

Keep up with all that's going on below.

Comment: Irish Central reports Storm Eleanor battered the shores with winds over 80 mph, with Galway catching the worst. The storm coincided with high tide in Galway City leaving fallen trees and severe flooding in its wake:





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Windsock

Terrified skiers swung violently about on chairlift as Austrian resort is hit by severe snowstorm (VIDEOS)

Sara Malm
Daily Mail
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 19:13 UTC
Bad weather: Several people were left trapped in a the chairlift in Vorarlberg ski resort in Austria, during a severe snow storm
Bad weather: Several people were left trapped in a the chairlift in Vorarlberg ski resort in Austria, during a severe snow storm
A video showing terrified skiers stuck in a chairlift swinging violently from side to side has emerged as Storm Eleanor sweeps through Europe after battering Britain.

The footage was shot at the Vorarlberg ski resort in Austria, where several people were left trapped in the lift system as the strong winds suddenly took hold.

Another video filmed nearby shows members of the resort staff climbing up onto the system to try to rescue the skiers, having to hold on as best they can while the snow storm is raging around them.

Elsewhere, both the French and Italian Alps have been on maximum avalanche alert today and several ski resorts closed their runs and lift systems due to the weather.

In France, major resort Val d'Isere closed its runs for the day because of heavy snowfall, while Chamonix said it was shutting many of its lifts as a precautionary measure.
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Attention

88 Gray dolphins die in 18 days off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil


Newshub
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 18:43 UTC
In this Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 photo provided by the Instituto Boto Cinza, a gray dolphin
© Leonardo Flach/Instituto Boto CinzaIn this Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 photo provided by the Instituto Boto Cinza, a gray dolphin floats dead in the Bay of Sepetiba, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Environmentalists say they are trying to figure out why more than 80 gray dolphins have died in less than a month on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.
Investigators are trying to uncover why dozens of endangered dolphins have died in less than a month off Brazil.

The bodies of more than 80 tucuxi dolphins, also known as boto cinza or gray dolphins, have been found in the baffling case.

According to the local Al Dia News, it's the worst mass death of the dolphin this decade. The second-worst was in 2016, when 69 died.

The Instituto Boto Cinza (Gray Dolphin Institute), a non-government organisation which monitors the dolphins, said 88 dolphins have died in the past 18 days - 10 percent of the population in the area.
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Cloud Grey

NASA captures electric-blue noctilucent clouds circling over Antarctica


Space Weather
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 17:01 UTC
NASA's AIM spacecraft is monitoring a vast ring of electric-blue clouds circling high above Antarctica. These are noctilucent clouds (NLCs), made of ice crystals frosting specks of "meteor smoke" in the mesosphere 83 km above the frozen continent. Here is an animation from the past week:

NLCs over Antarctica
© NASA
This is the season for southern noctilucent clouds. Every year around this time, summertime water vapor billows up into the high atmosphere over Antarctica, providing moisture needed to form icy clouds at the edge of space. Sunlight shining through the high clouds produces an electric-blue glow, which AIM can observe from Earth's orbit.

"The current season began on Nov. 19th," says Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "Compared to previous years of AIM data, this season seems to be fairly average, but of course one never knows what surprises lie ahead, particularly since the southern hemisphere seasons are so variable."
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Question

Mysterious house-shaking booms rattle Fannin County, Georgia

Natalie Kissel
fetchyournews.com
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 16:16 UTC
Mystery Boom
Residents of Fannin and Gilmer counties took to social media late Friday night trying to find the source of what is being described as a loud explosion. The boom that took place had enough force that some residents were reporting their homes shaking from the blast.

Residents took to social media to try to find the source of the noise.
Facebook post of boom in GA
Brenda Curry, a resident of Cherry Log, described what happened close to midnight on Dec. 29: "At first, I heard (and felt) one big explosion. I looked outside, because it sounded like a transformer had blown, or what I imagined a propane tank might sound like if it exploded."

"I didn't see anything," Curry stated of looking outside directly after the noise,"no fire, flames, or smoke."

Comment: See also: 64 mysterious booms heard all over the world this year. Why?

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Tornado2

The bomb cyclone headed for the US - is it even a thing?

Oliver Milman
The Guardian
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:26 UTC
bomb cyclone US
People on the US east coast dealing with a winter storm that is set to deliver plunging temperatures, strong winds, blizzards and coastal flooding have been provided a suitably stark term for the experience - "bomb cyclone".

The storm, currently forming off the coast of Florida before it's expected sweep up the entire eastern seaboard, has been described as a sort of winter hurricane or bomb cyclone due to its rapid formation and heavy impact.

"It's definitely the polar vortex of this year," said Gregg Gallina, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, in reference to the frigid spell that enveloped much of North America in 2013 and 2014.

Comment: Even if the term bomb has been in use for a while, it's true that year on year strange weather is happening more often and new terminology is created in order to classify it:

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Seismograph

Mount St. Helens has experienced 40 earthquakes since New Years day

Trevor Nace
Forbes
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:22 UTC
Mount St. Helens 1
© U.S. Geological Survey via Getty ImagesA plume of condensation rises off Mount St. Helens, as viewed from the roof of the Cascades Volcano Observatory December 19, 2006, in Vancouver, Washington.
Since New Years Day Mount St. Helens has experienced 40 earthquakes within its vicinity as tremors continue every few hours. The most powerful earthquake was a magnitude 3.9 that occurred around midnight west coast time about 5 miles from Mount St. Helens and 23 miles from the town of Morton.

The 3.9 magnitude earthquake was felt in Portland but there were no reported injuries or damage. Since that earthquake there have been 16 more earthquakes, averaging about every half hour with magnitudes from 0.6 to 2.6.

It is common to experience swarms of earthquakes at Mount St. Helens. While it is certainly not a sign of an impending eruption, the earthquakes are a result of an active volcanic system.


Comment: It seems that swarms of earthquakes in the area are a more recent development and were not so common in previous years.


Mount St. Helens is most commonly known for its major eruption in 1980, the deadliest and most economically damaging volcanic event in the history of the United States. The stratovolcano is situated just 96 miles from Seattle and 50 miles from Portland, making an eruption especially dangerous.

Comment: In recent years there has been much activity in the surrounding area and the recent quakes are said to be related to magma movement underground. See also:

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Seismograph

Huge cracks appear on hillside prompting evacuation at Rattlesnake Ridge, Washington (VIDEO)

Ted Land
King 5 News
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:45 UTC
rattlesnake ridge yakima county drone
A potential landslide on Rattlesnake Ridge in Yakima County is threatening homes and Interstate 82 near Yakima.

The area of concern is east of Union Gap, east of Thorp Road -- an area also known as Anderson Quarry. A section of Thorp Road has been closed as a precaution and Yakima County Emergency Management has urged some homeowners to evacuate.

The landslide, which is 20 acres in size, is moving at a rate of about 1.3 feet per week and is accelerating each week, according to state geologist Dave Norman. The concern is that the landslide would keep moving, even closer to I-82.

Video shot from a drone showed the landslide in striking clarity, with giant fissures in a hillside, widening, as the earth shifts.
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Snowflake

Florida has snow for first time in 29 years


Sky News
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 09:24 UTC
Snow in Tallahassee, Florida
© Rosemary Prince‏Snow in Tallahassee, Florida
Florida has seen its first snowfall in three decades as a rare winter storm hit the southeast of the US on Wednesday.

The weather office in the sunshine state's capital Tallahassee measured 0.25cm (0.1ins) of snow on its roof, marking the first time it had experienced the white stuff since 1989.

Plenty of excited locals - including the police force - took to Twitter to share pictures and videos of the exceptionally rare conditions.

Five to eight centimetres (2-3ins) of snow were expected in northeast Florida, where there have been warnings of icy roads, power cuts and freezing temperatures.
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