Earth ChangesS


Fire

Raging forest fire forces hundreds from their homes in South Korea


RT
Sun, 07 May 2017 15:39 UTC
South Korea fires
© YTN NEWS / YouTube
Hundreds of residents in the South Korean city of Gangneung have been ordered to evacuate their homes as a forest fire rages on the outskirts of the city.

The blaze, which started on a hill close to the city's east coast at around 3:30pm local time Saturday, has so far damaged 30 houses. City officials have ordered some 300 residents to clear the area, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports.

Fleeing residents have taken shelter in nearby schools and other public buildings, officials say. Some 2,700 people have been called upon to tackle the blaze, but so far the firefighters, soldiers and police officers have struggled to extinguish it.
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Bizarro Earth

Crews find mysterious 'void' where San Francisco street caved - NOT water-related


Associated Press
Sun, 07 May 2017 12:44 UTC
sinkhole San Francisco
© Jeff Chiu/Associated PressEmergency crews work on removing a big rig truck stuck in a sinkhole in San Francisco, May 5, 2017.
Crews found a 3-foot-deep void where a San Francisco street caved under a heavy big-rig truck on Friday, but they are stumped as to what caused the hole.

Water is usually to blame, but crews could not find any water leaks, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Betsy Rhodes said.

"The culprit to create a void like that is water, but the trench is dry," she said.

The massive sinkhole in the city's South of Market neighborhood developed early Friday after a heavy big-rig parked on what Rhodes said was essentially asphalt over air.

The driver escaped unharmed through the driver side when his big-rig started sinking on the passenger side. Driver Alejandro Curiel told KRON he couldn't believe what happened.

Rhodes said the sinkhole measured 3 feet deep (0.91 meter) and 10 feet (3 meters) by 20 feet (6 meters). Crews are covering the hole with sand and gravel.

Someone started a Twitter account in the name of the sinkhole and said it was just chilling. It also wished everyone a happy #Sinkholedemayo in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Comment: San Francisco has been plagued by a number of sinkholes.

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Attention

Dead orca whale shows highest pollutant level ever seen by scientists in an animal


Sputnik
Sun, 07 May 2017 12:15 UTC
orca whales
© AP Photo/ NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Cente
A dead orca whale that washed up on the shore of a Scottish isle has been revealed to have the highest concentration of dangerous pollutants ever recorded.

Following the dead whale's discovery in January on a small island, researchers with the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), a group that according to their website, "collates all data from stranded marine animals around Scotland," conducted an autopsy that revealed astonishingly high levels of dangerous pollutants, including highly toxic manmade polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Scientists conducting the autopsy said the PCB levels are the highest ever recorded in an animal, according to Ibtimes.
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Cloud Precipitation

Hailstones the size of baseballs strike Madras, Oregon

A.J. Kato
ktvz.com
Fri, 05 May 2017 09:13 UTC
hail stones
Mike Halsey was busy cleaning up the mess Friday after giant, baseball-sized hail from Thursday night's storm pummeled his Madras home.

"About 15 minutes into the hail storm, the front window ended up breaking in our house. Two of our children ended up waking up, crying, screaming," he said. "After, we come outside to find the damage to the truck, the house, the tree all over the place and then planters, small things here and there."

He said his insurance won't cover any of the damage.

The storm damaged businesses as well as homes.

Karen McCarthy owns Madras Garden Depot. She said the extreme weather damaged her greenhouse, as well as some of her outside plants.

"It just totally took the tops off all the tulips that were outside. I mean, they were decapitated," she said.
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Snowflake

Tennessee's Mount LeConte blanketed in white after rare May snow


myfox8
Sun, 07 May 2017 02:05 UTC
rare May snow covered Mt. LeConte
© LeConte LodgeA rare May snow covered Mt. LeConte with 6+ inches of snow.
Parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Tennessee-North Carolina state line saw multiple inches of snow on Saturday during a rare May snowfall.

WBIR reported that higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains are seeing snow as temperatures shift in the area. Mt. LeConte saw half a foot.

LeConte is more than 6,500 feet and in the Smokies just behind Gatlinburg, which is lower and milder.

Temperatures started creeping below freezing on Friday night and the sleet transformed into snow, according to the TV station.

Here in the Piedmont, below normal temperatures will be in the forecast for the next five to seven days.

Normal highs for this time of the year are in the 70s, but on Sunday afternoon, highs will only be in the mid to upper-60s.

Skies will be clear on Monday morning with lows around 40 degrees. It's possible a few rural locations could see lows in the upper-30s.
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Fire

Thousands evacuated as forest fires hit South Korea


Korea Times
Sat, 06 May 2017 01:35 UTC
South Korea wildfire
© Yonhap
The Gangneung city government said more than 2,500 residents were ordered to flee Saturday as a wind-fed forest fire spread in the eastern city.

About 300 residents are known to have fled from their homes after the blaze started on a hill near Daegwallyeong, a mountain pass close to the east coast, at around 3:30 p.m., according to city officials.

A total of 30 private houses were damaged by the fire as of 10 p.m., but no casualties have been reported, they said.

The residents took shelter at nearby schools and other public facilities, officials said.

Traffic along some parts of a nearby expressway was temporarily restricted but returned to normal at 10 p.m.

About 2,700 people, including hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, police officers and government officials, have been dispatched to fight the fire, but they are struggling to extinguish it, the officials said.

A series of forest fires hit South Korean cities on the same day amid a drought warning.
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Windsock

Unusual wind storm hits Vermont, New York

Ryan Hanrahan
NBC Connecticut
Sat, 06 May 2017 08:29 UTC
Vermont wind storm
© Green Mountain Power
An unusual "gravity wave" induced wind storm produced wind gusts of hurricane force in parts of western Vermont and eastern New York Friday afternoon. The unusual wind storm occurred suddenly in the late afternoon and appears to be driven by what is known as a gravity wave.

A gravity wave is a wave (think just like the ocean) that occurs in a stable atmosphere. This vertical wave pushes the air up and down just like a ripple in a pond after you toss a rock into it. We can see this perturbation in the atmosphere by looking at the surface pressure on a barometer.

These two pressure traces from Williamstown, MA and Stockbridge, MA in the Berkshires show a sharp drop and rise in the atmospheric pressure just after 4:00 p.m. This happened as the gravity wave moved over Massachusetts - the ripple overhead in the atmosphere produced a quick drop and rise in the pressure.

gravity wave air pressure
Pressure trace from a home weather station in Stockbridge, MA (above) Williamstown, MA (below) showing a sharp drop in pressure as the gravity wave passed.
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Red Flag

The oceans are drowning in plastic - is anyone paying attention?

Dominique Mosbergen
Huffington Post
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 16:02 UTC
plastic
© DIMITAR DILKOFFDiscarded plastic bottles and other garbage blocks the Vacha Dam, near the Bulgarian town of Krichim, on April 25, 2009. Single-use plastic containers like bottles and plastic bags are “the biggest source of trash” found near waterways and beaches, according to the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy.
Imagine an area 34 times the size of Manhattan. Now imagine it covered ankle-deep in plastic waste — piles of soda bottles and plastic bags, takeout containers by the mile, drinking straws as far as the eye can see.

That's a total of about 19 billion pounds of garbage. And according to one of the best estimates available, that's how much plastic waste ends up in our oceans every year.

"We're being overwhelmed by our waste," said Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer who led the 2015 study that determined this staggering number. According to Jambeck's research, this figure is on track to double by 2025 unless something is done, swiftly and at a global scale, to stem the tide of garbage.

Comment: Most of us are simply unaware of how the oceans of the world are being trashed!

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Ice Cube

Antarctic ice rift spreads

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Larsen C
© Midas Project, A. Luckman, Swansea University
From SWANSEA UNIVERSITY and the "if ice cracked in the Antarctic before airplanes and satellites existed, did it make a visual?" department.

New branch revealed in latest data from ice shelf

The rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica now has a second branch, which is moving in the direction of the ice front, Swansea University researchers revealed after studying the latest satellite data. The main rift in Larsen C, which is likely to lead to one of the largest icebergs ever recorded, is currently 180 km long. The new branch of the rift is 15 km long.

Last year, researchers from the UK's Project Midas, led by Swansea University, reported that the rift was growing fast. Now, just 20km of ice is keeping the 5,000 sq km piece from floating away.
Larsen C Ice Shelf
© John Sontag/NASALarsen C ice rift aerial view

Comment: Our planet is in constant alteration and flux. This rapid, significant and observable event is part of the bigger changes that are now upon us.

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Seismograph

Shallow 4.4 magnitude earthquake hits near Mt. Hekla volcano, Iceland


Iceland Monitor
Sat, 06 May 2017 18:52 UTC
graph
An earthquake of 4,4 magnitude hit South Iceland shortly after 12 noon today. Smaller quakes were also felt. The epicenter was about 30 kilometers west of the Mt. Hekla volcano and 4-7 kilometer under the earth's surface. The earthquake was felt in various parts of South Iceland including Selfoss and Hella.

According to the Icelandic Met Office the earthquakes are not related to Mt. Hekla and are not a sign that an eruption is imminent. No injuries or property damage has been reported.

Comment: A shallow earthquake of 5.8 magnitude was registered in the Scotia Sea (South Atlantic) on the same day.

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