Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

August snow drops in Banff, Alberta

snow canada
It's not unheard of to see some snowflakes in Canada's northern territories in mid-summer, but it's usually very rare south of 60.

Nevertheless, it does happen, and this year, the first people in southern Canada to see snow were people at Sunshine Village resort in Banff, Alta., and if the video below is any indication, it was more than a few flakes.

The video, captured below, was taken by Matt Wilson and posted on the resort's Facebook page, showing thick snowfall, though with no accumulation. Elsewhere in the range, Banff staff posted a photo of some rainy weather.


Snowflake

More snowfall in August for Canada

snow canada
Unusual Canada snowfall in August Banff's Sunshine Village, new greenhouse gas study shows that water vapor is causing changes not CO2, and the Sydney Morning Herald with a piece on global warming from humans causing so much ice melt that the water is now changing the axis tilt of the Earth.


Sources

Cloud Grey

Apocalyptic cloud stuns residents of Teixeira de Freitas, Brazil

Apocalyptic cloud over Brazil
© João Paulo Magalhães
Residents of a Brazilian town were stunned by the appearance of a strange, menacing-looking cloud Thursday evening, leading some to wonder if it spelled the beginning of something far more sinister.

At first look the obscure cloud resembles a meteorite trail or tornado, frozen in time, seconds before the impending doom. At second glance,it looks more like a freaky cloud formation.


Comment: Taken from a different angle this impressive photo of the cloud looks like a giant incoming fireball.

Fireball cloud
© Twitter/folhadoestadoLenticular 'fireball' cloud over Teixeira de Freitas, Brazil



Cloud Precipitation

The floods in Nepal, Bangladesh and India have killed about 500 and affected over 16 million

Deadly floods hit South Asian states
Deadly floods hit South Asian states
More than 16 million people have now been affected by seasonal flooding across a swathe of South Asia, say aid officials.

The floods in Nepal, Bangladesh and India are thought to have killed about 500 people and are expected to worsen.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) says it is becoming one of the worst regional humanitarian crises in years.

There are growing concerns about food shortages and disease.


Martin Faller, ICRC's deputy regional director, said more than a third of Bangladesh and Nepal were flooded, while about 11 million people across four northern Indian states were also affected.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.


Fire

2017 is British Columbia's worst wildfire season on record

fire bc
© Darryl Dyck
The 2017 wildfire season is officially the worst on record in British Columbia.

The B.C. Wildfire Service said Wednesday that a total of 1,026 wildfires have razed nearly 8,950 square kilometres, surpassing the old record of 8,560 square kilometres set in 1958.

The majority of the activity has occurred in the province's Cariboo region where fires have destroyed more than 6,700 square kilometres.

B.C. Wildfire Service spokesman Kevin Skrepnek says there are still 142 fires currently burning in the province.

"Most of those are the major fires that started on July 7, we have done a good job at getting on new fires quickly and keeping them small," he said.


Arrow Down

Man on disability scooter in China accidentally drives into a massive sinkhole

a scooter zoomed into view with the driver so distracted by their mobile phone they didn't see the sinkhole
A scooter zoomed into view with the driver so distracted by their mobile phone they didn't see the sinkhole
Checking your phone while driving can have disastrous consequences, but none more obvious than driving into a sinkhole.

Footage from Chinese television shows the ground suddenly give way in the middle of a street, creating a hole almost the whole way across one side.

Some time later, a scooter zoomed into view and drove straight into it without slowing down at all.

Both driver and bike disappeared into the hole just as another man frantically ran towards it in a doomed attempt to warn the driver.


Cloud Precipitation

Landslide kills 40 people in DR Congo

Condo landslide
A landslide has swept over a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people, a regional official says.

Part of a mountain engulfed "a fisherman's camp after heavy rains caused a landslide," the deputy governor of Ituri province, Pacifique Keta, told AFP on Thursday.

He said 40 people were killed in the disaster in the village of Tora on the banks of Lake Albert on Wednesday.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), we buried 28 bodies and today we will bury 12 more," said Keta.

A doctor at the nearby Tshomia hospital, Herve Isamba, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide.

The vast country has experienced a number of previous such disasters.

Bizarro Earth

Meteotsunami? Ocean dramatically recedes on South American Atlantic coast as huge waves batter the Pacific side

Ocean recedes at Montevideo, Uruguay
© El ObservadorOcean recedes at Montevideo, Uruguay on August 11
On August 11, 2017 the ocean suddenly receded in different coastal locations of Uruguay such as Montevideo and Punta del Este. Several hours later the same phenomenon occurred along beaches in Porto Alegre and Tramandaí in Brazil. Some local people feared a possible tsunami.


The Uruguayan Meteorological Institute (INUMET) had issued orange wind warnings earlier for Montevideo, Canelones, Maldonado, Rocha and Lavalleja. According to El Pais as reported in Elonce, the spokesman for the National Navy, Gastón Jaunsolo,said the phenomenon was caused by strong winds coming from the north.

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes north of Ascension Island

Ascension Island Earthquake
© Pixabay
A powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Friday north of an isolated Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, the US Geological Survey said.

The shallow 6.2-mile-deep quake near the volcanic island was reported at 2:59 a.m. UTC.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was no tsunami danger for the US east coast, the Gulf of Mexico states or the eastern coast of Canada based on the quake's location.

Snowflake Cold

The Arctic Sees an Early Winter - 33% Above Normal Ice Observed in Greenland

Greenland melting
The New York Times Lies
Winter has arrived about 10 days early in the Arctic, and Greenland's surface has gained 500 billion tons of ice - about 33% above normal.

Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Budget: DMI

Greenland ice sheet
Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Budget: DMI

Comment: See also:

Arctic ice melt - Fake news update

Oops! Scientists who claimed Arctic ice would melt entirely by September 2016 got it badly wrong

Global cooling: IPCC forgets Antarctic Ocean circulation and can't explain new record Arctic ice growth

Arctic sea ice extent sets another record

The Arctic is unaware of global warming: Sea ice and snow cover reaches highest extent of the last eleven years

Arctic sea ice cover has increased 47% since 2012 minimum

Arctic has gained hundreds of miles of thick ice in the last 3 years

Global warning? Top UK climate scientist and expert on Arctic ice cries foul over colleagues' deaths