Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Record snowfall freezes northeastern British Columbia grain harvest


cbc.ca
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 10:49 UTC
Snow on crops
© Dave Gilson/CBCRick Kantz of the B.C. Grain Producers Association says snow has forced farmers across the Peace region in northeastern B.C to leave anywhere between 10 to 20 per cent of their crop in the fields.
A record snowfall is forcing grain farmers in northeastern B.C. to halt their harvest.

On Oct. 1, Fort St. John received 23 centimetres of snow, The old record for the day was six centimetres set in 1954.

"This is probably the most severe one-off weather condition that I can remember in the last 40 years," said Rick Kantz, president of the B.C. Grain Producers Association.

Kantz said harvest had already been difficult this year.

"[The fields] were extremely wet before the snows came ... so instead of travelling across the surface, you're sinking in."

He said it's been raining and snowing since then, and the weather has forced grain farmers to leave anywhere between 10 to 20 per cent of their crops in the field.

"You're down 20 per cent of your income ... you might have enough to cover expenses but it doesn't leave much for wages to carry on," he explained.
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Bizarro Earth

Study: Receding glaciers leave communities at risk in Bolivia


Eurasia Review
Fri, 21 Oct 2016 08:20 UTC
Bolivia glacier receding
© Simon CookGlacier and lake near the villages of Pelechuco and Agua Blanca in the Apolobamba region, northern Bolivia.
A new study published in The Cryosphere, an European Geosciences Union journal, has found that Bolivian glaciers shrunk by 43% between 1986 and 2014, and will continue to diminish if temperatures in the region continue to increase.

"On top of that, glacier recession is leaving lakes that could burst and wash away villages or infrastructure downstream," said lead-author Simon Cook, a lecturer at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.

Receding glaciers also put water supply in the region at risk. Glacial meltwater is important for irrigation, drinking water and hydropower, both for mountain villages and large cities such as La Paz and El Alto. Throughout the year, the 2.3 million inhabitants of these two cities receive about 15% of their water supply from glaciers, with this percentage almost doubling during the dry season. Glacier retreat also means less water is available to supply rivers and lakes, such as southern Bolivia's Lake Poopó, which recently dried up.


Comment: Bolivia's second-largest lake has completely dried up


The new study is one of the first to monitor recent large-scale glacier change in Bolivia, to better understand how receding glaciers could affect communities in the country. "The novelty of our study lies in the bigger picture — measuring glacier change over all main glaciated ranges in Bolivia — and in the identification of potentially dangerous lakes for the first time," Cook said.
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Seismograph

Strong 7.1 magnitude earthquake hits central Italy, tremors felt in Rome- USGS


RT
Sun, 30 Oct 2016 08:06 UTC
Map of Italy
© usgs.gov
A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake has hit central Italy, Reuters reports citing the United States Geological Survey and local broadcasters. This comes only three days after two more tremors shook the region on Wednesday, leaving villages partly destroyed.

There were no immediate reports on damage or casualties caused by the quake.

However, local RAI TV reports that the tremor was powerful enough to wake the residents of the capital Rome, who reported walls of buildings shaking.

Initial reports on the magnitude of the tremors varied - while the USGS and Italian media talked of a 7.1 earthquake, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said the tremor was magnitude 6.5 or 6.6.

The USGS reports the quake was centered 68 km (42 miles) east-southeast of the city of Perugia and 132 kilometers northeast of Rome. The epicenter lay some 108 kilometers deep.

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Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rainfall and flash floods kill 26 in Egypt


Al-Ahram
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 20:47 UTC
Heavy rain floods a street in the Egyptian city of Ras Gharib in Red Sea province on October 27, 2016
© Ahram ArabicHeavy rain floods a street in the Egyptian city of Ras Gharib in Red Sea province on October 27, 2016
The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in Egypt has risen to 26 people, state news agency MENA reported on Saturday, citing the health and population ministry.

A further 72 people were injured following the floods over the weekend, according to the ministry.

In South Sinai, nine people were killed and another was injured. In Upper Egypt's Sohag, eight people were killed, 23 injured, and in Beni Suef, a further five people were injured.

In the Red Sea, nine people were killed and 35 others injured.

On Saturday, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered a total of EGP 50 million (around $5.6 million) to be allocated as compensation to the victims of the floods nationwide, while a further EGP 50 million was allocated for an urgent restoration of infrastructure in areas affected by the floods.


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Attention

Signs and Portents: Two-headed turtle born in Khatam, Iran


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 18:37 UTC
A two-headed turtle
Two-headed turtle
A two-headed turtle has been born in Khatam, a city in Iran's central Yazd Province, The Tehran Times reported.

The head of the local environmental protection department, Saber Afhami, told the newspaper that the newborn turtle was in good health, the newspaper wrote.

The rare turtle arrived into this world in the company of another, less odd-looking single-headed, one.

Saber Afhami held out hope that scientists would look into the cause of this unusual phenomenon.
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Arrow Down

2 cars plunge into sinkhole of boiling hot water in Samara, Russia

Genevieve Hayward
The Sun (UK)
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 17:47 UTC
The water was so hot, anybody inside the cars would have been boiled alive
© CEN/VK The water was so hot, anybody inside the cars would have been boiled alive
Hot steam gushed from a massive 15-metre sinkhole that opened up in a Russian road

This is the bizarre moment two cars got sucked into a giant sinkhole filled with boiling water.

The incident happened in the south-west Russian city of Samara when massive pipes containing hot water from a central heating system burst underneath a road, causing a massive 15 metre sinkhole to open up.

Hot steam could be seen rising out of the sinkhole as tarmac and the two cars fell inside.

Local media reported that had anybody been inside the cars they would have been boiled alive.


Two cars plunged into a sinkhole filled with boiling water in Russia
© CEN/VK Two cars plunged into a sinkhole filled with boiling water in Russia

Comment: Wow! That's a first!

However, this same city experienced a spate of giant sinkholes back in 2013:

Samara: The Russian city being 'eaten alive' as cars, buses and trucks disappear, swallowed by giant sinkholes

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Arrow Down

3 vehicles fall into sinkhole in Bethpage, New York

Joan Gralla
Newsday
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:26 UTC
The Nassau County police found these three vehicles tipped, or nearly so, into a sinkhole that opened up Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, near Hicksville Road and Harrison Avenue in Bethpage.
© NBC 4 NYThe Nassau County police found these three vehicles tipped, or nearly so, into a sinkhole that opened up Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, near Hicksville Road and Harrison Avenue in Bethpage.
Three vehicles became mired in a sinkhole that opened up in Bethpage on Friday afternoon, police said.

Nassau County police got an emergency call about 2:30 p.m. reporting the hole in a parking area at Hicksville Road and Harrison Avenue.

Three cars — two sport utility vehicles and a pickup truck — were at least partially trapped by the hole, photographs taken at the scene show.

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Attention

Man hospitalized following bear attack in Romania


Fox News
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 17:05 UTC
Bear attack
Authorities say a 20-year-old American has been attacked by a brown bear in the Transylvanian city of Brasov.

Emergency services spokesman Captain Ciprian Sfreja told The Associated Press the man was attacked by a 100-kilogram (220-pound) bear on Saturday in a forested area of the city.

Sfreja says the man suffered a wound 2-3 centimeters (1-inch) deep to his left forearm before the bear retreated into the forest.

The man, whom authorities are not naming, was transported to a local hospital and reported to be in stable condition.

There are occasional bear attacks in Brasov, which is surrounded by several mountains.

Transylvania is a region in Romania, where between 5,000 and 6,000 brown bears are estimated to live.

Source: Associated Press
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Attention

Humpback whale found dead in the port of Wilmington, Delaware

Esteban Parra
delawareonline
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:16 UTC
The dead whale caught in the Port of Wilmington
© Mike Phillips/WDELThe dead whale caught in the Port of Wilmington
Officials have only a few clues so far to figure out how a dead humpback whale ended up in a berth at the Port of Wilmington early Friday.

Officials said they were working to remove the animal from the port's waters, where it was found floating at about 3:15 a.m. Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the Lewes-based Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute, said fishing gear appeared to be tangled around the dead whale's pectoral fins.

The whale appeared to be about 25 to 30 feet long and was not much older than a few years, Thurman said.

The MERR Institute had its responders on scene Friday and was working with others to remove the animal from the port's berth so it could be examined. As of late Friday afternoon the whale had been secured and towed out of the berth. MERR responders were waiting for it to be repositioned in order for it to be lifted out of the water by a crane.
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Attention

Young humpback whale washes ashore, dies on Bald Head Island, North Carolina

Elizabeth Montgomery
Star News
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 14:53 UTC
Dead whale on Bald Head Island
© BHI ConservancyDead humpback whale on Bald Head Island
A juvenile humpback whale died after washing ashore Thursday evening on Bald Head Island. Crews and scientists removed the carcass Friday.

The 8-month-old female whale washed up along South Beach near the Shoals Club about 4 p.m. and died just after 6 p.m., according to Bald Head Island Conservancy's Communications Specialist Amber Walters.

Conservancy members watched over the body overnight, Walters said.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington's Marine Mammal Stranding team, led by Bill McLellan, arrived on the island Friday morning. The team performed a necrospy on the 28-foot long, 5,000- to 6,000-pound whale.

"There were a lot of killer whale bites on her and she had a fractured jaw," McLellan said. "There was no evidence of a vessel strike or human interaction that caused the fracture." It was determined her broken jaw was a result of being rammed by the killer whales, McLellan added.

The young whale was extremely emaciated and, with a fractured jaw, was unable to eat properly, McLellan said. During the necrospy an abscess was pulled from inside her mouth.
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