Earth ChangesS


Wolf

Stray dogs and monkeys turn on residents of Gurugram, India

Piyush Ohrie
Millennium Post
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 18:33 UTC
Dog attack
The citizens of Gurugram are on high alert after incidents of attacks by stray animals in various residential areas of the city took a steep rise.

Already plagued with rising number of strays in the residential areas, now a large number of dog bite cases are being reported from various colonies of the Millennium City.

The dog bites are being coupled with attacks launched by monkeys residing in these areas of the city. The complaints of such attacks have been reported from private residential colonies like DLF township, Sushant Lok, South City, Valley View and several HUDA sectors.

The reports showcases, six such cases of dog bites from Sector 17 area. In the latest incident, a pack of dogs attacked an elderly person in the same sector.
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Igloo

Northern Manitoba town desperate for groceries after series of blizzards


CBC News
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 13:08 UTC
Snow in Churchill, Manitoba
© Keith McDougal/YouTubeChurchill has been under a local state of emergency since March 10, after the area was hit with 60 cm of snow over three days.

Comment: According to the Canadian Press, after three weeks of blizzards, the first food arrived in Churchill, Manitoba on Tuesday.


Another winter blizzard is hitting the remote northern Manitoba community of Churchill, where people are already desperate for groceries that have been delayed since the last blizzard two weeks ago.

But there could be relief as soon as Monday afternoon, if the train can get all the way through to the town of about 900 residents.

OmniTrax, the Denver-based company that owns the rail line that brings supplies into Churchill, cleared the tracks and is trying to get supplies delivered as soon as possible. A train with supplies departed from the northern Manitoba town of Gillam, about 270 kilometres southeast of Churchill, at around noon Monday.

"A lot of families are suffering because they have young children and they need milk," said local resident Lana Bilenduke. No bread or vegetables are for sale at the local store and meat is scarce, she said. "Everyone's in a crisis until we get our groceries in."

Empty grocery shelves in Churchill, Manitoba
© Lana BilendukeLocals say there is hardly any meat left at the one store in Churchill.
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Sun

Sun halo spotted in Tennessee Valley, Alabama

Christina Edwards and Jake Reed
WHNT
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 16:30 UTC
Sun halo seen over Huntsville, AL
© Ramona Edwards
Did you see a halo around the sun Wednesday?

If you did, you spotted an atmospheric optical phenomenon known as a 22-degree halo.

Earthsky.org explains it very simply: "Halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above our heads.

These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The halos you see are caused by both refraction, or splitting of light, and also by reflection, or glints of light from these ice crystals."

It is called a 22-degree halo because the ring has a radius of approximately 22 degrees around the sun or moon.
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Snowflake

Blizzard of '17 dumped 23.6 inches in 2 days on Northeast Pennsylvania, most ever in single storm

David Singleton
The Times-Tribune
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:37 UTC
Snow in Pennsylvania
© Times-Tribune
The Blizzard of 2017 dumped 23.6 inches of snow on Northeast Pennsylvania over two days, the most ever from a single storm, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday in releasing the final snowfall totals.

The snowfall from March 14 into March 15 at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport beat the old record of 21.4 inches on March 13-14, 1993, during the Blizzard of 1993.

The total included 22.1 inches of snow on March 14, the most for any calendar day since record-keeping began locally in 1901. The previous record was 18.7 inches on the first day of the 1993 blizzard.

This month now stands as the third snowiest March on record with 30.6 inches, which also makes its the sixth snowiest month ever, the weather service said. The record for March is 38 inches in 1916. The snowiest month on record is January 1994 with 42.3 inches.
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Cloud Grey

New cloud classifications added for the first time in 30 years

Chris Dolce
The Weather Channel
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 16:30 UTC
Asperitas and murus are just two of the names you'll see among several new classifications added to an updated cloud reference released this week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

This update is the first in 30 years for the International Cloud Atlas, which the WMO calls "the global reference for observing and identifying clouds."

A new cloud species has been added to the atlas called volutus, more commonly known as a roll cloud by meteorologists. Cloud species are subdivisions of the 10 basic cloud "genera," the WMO says.
Roll cloud
© National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington
Roll/volutus clouds are a relatively rare, low-level, horizontal, tube-shaped cloud. Although they are associated with a thunderstorm (or occasionally a cold front), they are completely detached from the base of the cumulonimbus cloud. Volutus is a Latin term for rolled, which perfectly matches their appearance.
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Arrow Down

Most of South Carolina's peach crop lost due to extreme cold weather

Daniel Bonds
wltx.com
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 11:50 UTC
Damaged peach blossom
Damaged peach blossom
The freezing temperatures last week killed most of South Carolina's peach crop, but strawberries fared better.

"Peaches are a signature South Carolina crop, and this weather anomaly has devastated peach farmers," said Hugh Weathers, South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.

South Carolina is the largest peach producing state on the East Coast. The state is second only to California nationally.

Weathers said 85 to 90% of the peach crop was lost last week during the extreme cold weather, and the impact will be felt in lots of areas across the nation.

He said, "The South Carolina peach has a great reputation moving up the East Coast, losing the South Carolina peach this summer will bring some tears to New York City."

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Bizarro Earth

Thousands of underground methane bubbles set to explode in Siberia

Kesavan Unnikrishnan
Digital Journal
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:07 UTC
As many as 7,000 massive underground methane bubbles, formed by thawing permafrost are set to explode in Siberia. Such explosions, while releasing greenhouse gases, can create massive craters and poses a major safety risk to the local people.
Methane Bubbles
© Steve Jurvetson/Wiki CommonsAs the permafrost continues to melt it gives a Swiss cheese-like appearance to the landscape in the Arctic.
Scientists were puzzled over the appearance of numerous craters across the Siberian permafrost over recent years - including the famous 'gateway to the underworld' crater near Batagaiin. Later, it was discovered that unseasonably high temperatures have released methane stored in the permafrost, causing a sort of explosion that forms the craters.

Last year, more than 15 bulges or bulgunyakh in the local Yakut language, were discovered by researchers in Siberia's remote Bely Island. In a followup research, using extensive field expeditions and satellite surveys. thousands of bulging bumps in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas have been identified.

Comment:
In 2014 a mysterious crater-hole was discovered in the Yamal peninsular, northwest Siberia, Russia. It was 'probably caused by methane released as permafrost thawed' according to researchers, and the result of 'internal forces not seen in 8,000 years'. Since then new information has come to light, with witnesses reporting an 'explosion' and a 'glow in the sky' from 100 km away.

This would indicate an extremely powerful explosion occurred from below to form this 'crater-hole', in a region known in the local Nenets language as the 'end of the world'. The recent discovery by scientists of methane 'bubbles' on the remote Belyy Island in the Kara Sea off the Yamal Peninsula coastline may be another alarming sign of increased activity in the depths.
SOTT Exclusive: The growing threat of underground fires and explosions

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Cloud Precipitation

Up to baseball sized hailstones reported in the Carolinas


Spectrum News
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 20:29 UTC
hailstone
The southern Piedmont of North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina took a pounding from hail storms Tuesday evening. In some locations, the hail looked more like snow covering the ground.

Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported near UNC-Charlotte. However, the hail was even larger in South Carolina. Locations near Greenville, South Carolina reported baseball sized hail that shattered car windows in some neighborhoods.
@NWSGSP Brother sent me this picture of hail from Travelers Rest around 6pm. More hail on Wade Hampton moments ago #scwx #severewx #hail pic.twitter.com/U6ml8uqk7z

— Melissa Griffin (@mlgriffinWX1) March 21, 2017
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Wolf

Los Angeles killer pit bulls euthanized...are dog attacks now an epidemic?

Phyllis M Daugherty
City Watch
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 18:33 UTC
PIT BULLS
ANIMAL WATCH-GM Brenda Barnette announced at the LA Animal Services' Commission meeting on March 14, that the two Pit Bulls impounded after the tragic attack which killed Valentin Herrera, 76, and his small dog last month have been euthanized.

Mr. Herrera and his 5-year-old Pomeranian were walking in the 2600 block of Lincoln Park Blvd. near his home on February 2, when two male Pit Bulls which had escaped from a nearby yard grabbed the tiny dog, "shredding his body like a piece of material," according to a neighbor. An eyewitness said that the owner of the Pit Bulls saw the dogs attacking but took no action to stop them.

When he tried to save his best friend, Mr. Herrera was also attacked, suffering severe injuries to his head and arms.

He underwent surgery but remained in a coma and never regained consciousness. According to a statement by a family member on their GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses, "...after about 3 weeks of being in the hospital the doctors have told us that his brain is no longer functioning. The family and I have decided to let him go and rest, because we know he has been through so much."

Mr. Herrera died on February 28, just before a scheduled hearing on the attack by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services on March 1.
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Tornado2

Two waterspouts filmed near Carmila, Australia


Yahoo! News
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 15:39 UTC
Waterspouts off Carmila
Two waterspouts were spotted near Carmila in Queensland on March 20. Severe thunderstorm warnings were in place for the area, according to local reports. Rain rates of up to 2.3 inches were also recorded in Queensland.

This video shows the waterspouts from a distance. The uploader told Storyful that the waterspouts "only lasted for a couple of minutes."


Source: Storyful News
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