Earth ChangesS


Tornado2

Hundreds of homes damaged as another tornado outbreak sweeps through central US


The Watchers
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 08:33 UTC
Missouri tornado damage
© Severe StudiosSmithville & Plattsburg, MO tornado damage from a drone.
NWS Storm Prediction Center has 36 preliminary tornado reports for March 6, 2017 from Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Most of them in occurred in Missouri where 18 injuries were reported in Jackson and St. Charles counties. A confirmed tornado touched down near Princeton and Zimmerman, Minnesota, damaging homes and downing trees. It was the earliest tornado in the history of the state. The outbreak comes less than a week after deadly tornadoes struck the Midwest.


Comment: Tornadoes and large hail hit US Midwest leaving at least 2 dead


The storms unleashed damaging winds, heavy rain, large hail and isolated tornadoes but there were no reports of casualties this time. Powerful winds extended as far south as the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, where a post office and church were damaged, and as far north as Minnesota where NWS confirmed the earliest tornado in the history of the state.

Wind damage was reported across much of Missouri, where most of the tornadoes occurred. Baseball-sized hail was also reported in parts of the state.

At least 15 people have been injured after a tornado moved through Oak Grove, MO on Monday night. Officials said 483 homes there sustained some type of damage, along with 10 to 12 commercial buildings.

"It looks like the injuries are minimal so, based on some of the damage I've seen, it's rather amazing," Oak Grove Mayor Jeremy Martin said in a Tuesday morning press conference.


Comment: A January tornado outbreak in the US this year was the deadliest since 1969 and exceeded the entire 2016 death toll in just two days. In February a State of Emergency was declared in Louisiana as tornadoes destroyed homes and flipped trucks.

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Attention

'Doorway To The Underworld' in Siberia is rapidly growing in size

Trevor Nace
Forbes
Tue, 28 Feb 2017 19:49 UTC
Batagaika Crater in eastern Siberia
© Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the NorthBatagaika Crater in eastern Siberia
In the vast landscape of eastern Siberia there is a massive hole in the ground known as the "doorway to the underworld" triggered from climate change in the recent decades. The permafrost ground near the Yana River Basin has been warming lately, causing large scale changes in the local topography and ecology.

The tadpole-shaped crater, called the Batagaika crater, is known as a "megaslump" and is related to karsting triggered through permafrost melting. Currently, the crater measures 0.6 miles long and 282 feet deep. However, the crater's growth has increased recently prompting locals to nickname it the "doorway to the underworld" and to avoid the area.

Permafrost is ground which remains at or below freezing temperatures for more than two years. This is common in the high latitudes of Siberia where average yearly temperatures prevent warming of the ground to above freezing. Pore spaces within the soil contains trapped water, which in the case of northern latitudes can be frozen in place for thousands of years.

Comment: Mysterious Siberian crater, Batagaika, 'gateway to a subterranean world'

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Wolf

Five people, including two children, mauled by two dogs in Hunter Valley, Australia


Yahoo7 News
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 19:11 UTC
Dog attack
Four people, including two young girls, have been mauled while trying to save a woman being attacked by a vicious dog in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The 40-year-old woman had been walking her dog in Metford on Monday night when two unrestrained Bull Mastiffs charged.

Donald McInnes and his two daughters, aged 8 and 16, tried to help the woman and her dog but were also attacked.

"(There was) a staffy being held down by one of the dogs, a woman screaming," Mr McInnes said.

"(The woman's) nostril was torn open and her lip was all busted up."

Witnesses say the two dogs had been terrorising locals before the attack on the woman and the McInnes family.

Comment: Other recent serious canine attacks: Family dogs attack Madisonville, Kentucky child, parents warn families to stay alert

Boy, 5, injured after dog attack in Skelmersdale, UK

Person taken to hospital after dog attack in Maketu, New Zealand

Toddler recovering after being attacked by dog at Lake Park, Florida

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Sun

Sea of Galilee water level lowest in century


AFP / PHYS.org
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 19:35 UTC
The northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, pictured in September 2016
The northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, pictured in September 2016 .
The lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water has declined to its lowest level in a hundred years, an Israeli official said Tuesday.

The Sea of Galilee, which is actually a lake, has suffered from four consecutive years of rain shortages, Amir Givati of Israel's Water Authority told military radio.

"The situation is serious," he said. "The lake has fallen to its lowest level for a century."

The level is 20 centimetres below what experts consider acceptable, the so-called "red line," he added.

The "regional drought affects the whole of the Middle East," Givati added.

The shortage of rainfall is affecting agriculture, the environment and animal life in the nearby area, he added.
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Attention

Steller sea lion boards fishing boat, attacks fisherman in Sand Point, Alaska

Michelle Theriault Boots
Alaska Dispatch News
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:52 UTC
Stellers sea lon
Stellers sea lon
Mike McNeil was untangling a net off the back of a fishing boat docked in Sand Point in January when he felt a pair of teeth sink into his calf.

A commercial fisherman in Alaska since 1980, McNeil had pretty much seen it all.

But what was happening now was new territory for McNeil: A Steller sea lion heavier than a grand piano had jumped onto the boat, slammed him to the deck and was now trying to drag him into the water with its powerful bite.

"He hopped back a couple times to get down the stern ramp and he let go," McNeil said.

McNeil, known as "Mac" by other fishermen, was in blinding pain but retained hope that the wound was "something superficial."

Other crew members carried him to a tool room, where he peeled off his boots, fishing gear, sweatpants and long underwear. The wound was not superficial.
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Fire

Wildfire rages in Ibiza town, Spain


The Local Es
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:35 UTC
The fire sent smoke across Ibiza Town.
© IBANATThe fire sent smoke across Ibiza Town.
A wildfire raged out of control in the heart of Ibiza Town forcing several homes to be evacuated and blocking roads.

Flames six metres high were fuelled by strong gusts of wind as the fire spread from protected parkland in the centre of Ibiza Town threatening to engulf residential areas.

The fire broke out for reasons as yet unknown shortly before 1pm on Monday. The area where the fire raged is a protected wetland home to an estimated 140 species of bird.

It also served as an area popular with the homeless who slept out in makeshift shelters in the reeds and canes, according to El Mundo.
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Fire

Three killed in Texas wildfire, blazes also strike Oklahoma and Colorado

Jon Herskovitz
Reuters
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:28 UTC
Potter County wildfire.
© CNN VAN Potter County wildfire
Three ranch hands have been killed while trying to protect livestock from a wildfire in the Texas Panhandle, where blazes have scorched about 125,000 acres (50,585 hectares), officials said on Tuesday.

Wildfires driven by high winds and dry conditions have also hit Colorado and Oklahoma, prompting evacuations and destroying structures.

A woman and two men were killed on Monday in a fire that hit in Gray County, Texas. One was overcome by smoke and died in an area hospital and the other two died from burns, said County Judge Richard Peet.

"They were trying to move cattle away from the oncoming fire," he said in a telephone interview. The names of the three people have not yet been released.

The largest fire currently blazing in Texas is the so-called Perryton blaze that has covered 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) in the Texas Panhandle and is only 5 percent contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service, which tracks wildfires. That fire has destroyed two houses.
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Fire

Wildfire burns 30,000 acres, destroys homes in Logan County, Colorado

Keith Coffman
Reuters
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 18:16 UTC
fire
A wind-driven wildfire erupted on the eastern plains of Colorado on Monday, scorching 30,000 acres of grassland, prompting the temporary evacuation of a small farming town and destroying at least three homes, emergency officials said.

The fire erupted around midday east of the town of Sterling and quickly grew out of control as gale-force winds fanned the flames, said Marilee Johnson, spokeswoman for the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

Mandatory evacuations were lifted for the town of Haxtun late in the afternoon but some 900 homes remain threatened and those residents have been warned to prepare to flee should shifting winds drive flames their way, she said.

The 30,000-acre fire was 50 percent contained, the Logan County Office of Emergency Management said in a statement.
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Ice Cube

More powerful icebreakers needed in Baltic Sea despite global warming


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 15:43 UTC
Finnish icebreaker ship
© AFP 2017/ PAAL AARSAETHER
Oddly enough, global warming and milder winters have led to more severe ice conditions in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. Today, icebreakers are already struggling to get through towering compacted ice and the problem may become exacerbated in the future, unless more powerful icebreaking vessels step in.

As surprising as it may sound, milder winters don't make life easier for icebreakers. On the contrary, thaws alternating with bouts of frost are a nightmare for icebreaker fleets, Finnish experts found. During winters with a regular cold, solid ice grows to become 50-60 centimeters thick and is easy to get through. Although milder winter temperatures at first glance make ice thinner, it also leads to the formation of an ice crust, which, with the aid of harsh winds, grows to several meters of pack ice.
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Snowflake

Avalanche hits French ski resort with several buried under snow


RT
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 14:42 UTC
French ski resort of Tignes
© anthonnny_roland / Instagram
An avalanche in the French ski resort of Tignes has left several people buried under snow, local media have reported. The ski slope was closed following the incident with emergency services dispatched to search for those missing.

"According to witnesses, there are several people under the avalanche," police told Le Dauphine. The rescue operation is being made difficult by a lack of visibility which has prevented helicopters accessing the area. Rescue services have had to search on foot.

Photos taken at the location show skiers being evacuated from one of the resort's slopes.
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