Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Snowpack in Sierra Nevadas at 177% of historic average, biggest in 22 years

Paul Rogers
Mercury News
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 19:32 UTC
tahoma snow roof
© Aric Crabb/Bay Area News GroupWorkers remove snow from the roof of the Tahoma Market on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, in Tahoma, Calif.
After a month of huge blizzards and "atmospheric river" storms, the Sierra Nevada snowpack — source of a third of California's drinking water — is 177 percent of the historic average, the biggest in more than two decades.

The last time there was this much snow on Feb. 1 in the Sierra was in 1995. Pete Wilson was California's governor, "Seinfeld" was the top-rated show on television and Steve Young had just led the 49ers to a blowout win in Super Bowl XXIX.

In a breathtaking shift for a state that had been mired in five years of punishing drought, 25 feet of new snow has fallen on Heavenly ski resort in South Lake Tahoe since New Year's Day. Freeways and schools across the Sierra have been closed at times, and firefighters are having trouble finding fire hydrants.

"Some are buried under 12 or 13 feet of snow," said Eric Guevin, fire marshal at the Tahoe-Douglas Fire Protection District in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, just north of the California state line. "We've had to use metal detectors to find them."
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Health

Zebra attacks zookeeper at Safari Park in China

Sam Webb
The Sun (UK)
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:20 UTC
The zebra latches on to the unlucky zookeeper
The zebra latches on to the unlucky zookeeper
Terrifying mobile phone footage has captured the moment a zoo employee was attacked by an enraged zebra and violently dragged into the bushes.

The dramatic incident took place at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province - and the viral video comes just days after a male tourist was mauled to death by a tiger in an East China zoo.

In the 15-second clip, which has since been viewed tens of millions of times on China's popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, tourists can be heard gasping as the zebra clamps its teeth into the zoo employee's arm.

The man, surnamed Li, stumbles and falls to the ground as the animal drags him along, and a number of other employees can be seen chasing after the zebra with sticks to save their colleague.

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Snowflake Cold

Russian ice breakers stuck in the Arctic, yachts over underwater volcanoes

Adapt 2030
You Tube
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 12:42 UTC
Vessels Kapitan Dranitsyn and Admiral Makarov ‘marooned’ in east for the rest of winter after getting trapped off Chukotka.
Vessels Kapitan Dranitsyn and Admiral Makarov ‘marooned’ in east for the rest of winter after getting trapped off Chukotka.
Russian Ice Breakers stuck in unexpectedly and unusually thick sea ice, but they we were told the sea ice is disappearing. Private yacht sails through floating pumice and then after see an underwater volcano where they sailed over. New Zealand Herald, epic article as a case study into "Warm Weather Media Bias"


Sources
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Attention

Dead newborn gray whale found in Redondo Beach, California

Megan Barnes
Daily Breeze
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 10:17 UTC
Gray whale
Gray whale
The carcass of a newborn gray whale washed ashore at Redondo Beach on Tuesday afternoon, catching the attention of lifeguards as it floated listlessly in the surf near Avenue C.

Los Angeles County lifeguard rescue boats towed the 12-foot-long baby out to sea at about 4 p.m., according to lifeguard Capt. Eric Howell.

Pacific gray whales are in the midst of their annual winter migration from their Alaskan feeding grounds to warm Mexican lagoons, where they mate and give birth. Newborns aren't born with a thick enough layer of blubber to withstand Alaskan temperatures, but they thrive in the warm waters off Baja California. They typically bulk up quickly on their mother's fat-rich milk during the journey back up north.

Lifeguard officials worked with representatives from NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service to determine where to tow the dead whale on Tuesday, Howell said.
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Fire

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano lava 'firehose': 'Never seen anything like it' says scientist (VIDEO)


Big Island Video News
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 17:08 UTC
Hawaii volcano lava firehose
© USGSWhen this USGS photo was taken over the weekend, scientists noted the lava stream “appeared wider… today compared to yesterday, and often had holes in the thin sheet.”
Scientists with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have been studying the mesmerizing lava stream, pouring out of the lava tube on the sea cliff at the Kamokuna ocean entry, inside the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

In a Monday phone interview, geologist Matt Patrick said he hasn't seen anything like it in his 9 years monitoring Kilauea volcano on Hawaii Island.

The activity is part of the 61g lava flow, erupting miles away from the vent of Puʻu ʻŌʻō on the East Rift Zone of Kilauea. As the molten lava flows into the cool seawater, pulsating littoral explosions throw spatter, or fragments of molten lava, high into the air.

Patrick was out at the edge of the lava flow recently, taking the spectacular photos and video that have since been posted to the USGS website. The scientists carefully approached the site in protective gear on Jan. 28, and took a look at an ominous crack that has developed on the cliff.

The geologists determined that "the eastern end of the hot crack was about 30 cm (11.8 in) wide and deeply cut into recent lava atop the older sea cliff."


Comment: There has been increased activity at Kilauea volcano in recent times. See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Underwater volcano eruption spotted near Tonga


Radio New Zealand
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:30 UTC
A New Zealand scientist says satellite images show that an underwater volcano has erupted near the main island of Tonga.
Underwater volcano near Tonga
© Auckland UniversityThe underwater volcano has erupted near the main island of Tonga.
Auckland University's Murray Ford, who is monitoring a volcanic island in the area, discovered the eruption when he noticed a large plume of dirty water between Tongatapu and Hunga volcano.

Dr Ford said the satellite imagery definitely showed a vent releasing volcanic debris into the water.

"We got a spectacular satellite image from the Landsat 8 satellite, which was largely cloud free, which is quite rare in the tropics, so in terms of that, it was quite spectacular."

GNS Science vulcanologist Brad Scott said the images confirmed that a submarine volcanic eruption had been ongoing since 23 January.
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Snowflake Cold

Black Blizzard: Cyclone wreaks havoc on Russia's Arctic city of Norilsk (VIDEO)


RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:29 UTC
Storm
© Norilsk News / YouTube
A powerful cyclone has triggered days of severe snowstorms in the world's northernmost city of Norilsk, leaving inhabitants battling to maintain a regular lifestyle in the face of extreme cold, biting winds, and low visibility.

Storm warnings have been announced every few days throughout the past month, with the latest declared on Sunday night, as a warm cyclone hit the city. Temperatures have risen from about -25C to -15C, but a third of the expected monthly snowfall fell on Sunday night alone, and precipitation has not subsided since. Average snow cover has reached seven inches.

Winds have regularly exceeded 25 km/h, and have on occasions reached 40 km/h, which is defined by Russian meteorologists as a "black blizzard" - a severe weather event. Visibility has fallen below 1 km, but videos posted by locals show that it is hard to make out the houses on the sides of the road even during daytime - which only lasts five hours - without streetlights.
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Ice Cube

Scientists to march on Washington in support of global warming censorship

Jon Rappoport
No More Fake News
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:11 UTC
earth on fire
USA Today has the story (1/26):
"American scientists worried about climate change and skeptical of President Donald Trump are planning a protest march in Washington, D.C."

"March organizers, on the event's website, said it serves as 'a starting point to take a stand for science in politics'."

"...The group's mission statement is set to come out on Monday."

"'There are certain things that we accept as facts with no alternatives', the statement said. 'The Earth is becoming warmer due to human action...'"
Well, all right, that's that. No alternatives.

Debate would be subversive.

Official science is the only science.

But oops; all along, there have been dissenters from the manmade warming mantra; they just haven't been allowed inside government and media portals.
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Snowflake

There's so much snow on Loveland Pass, Colorado that it buried an avalanche warning sign

Allison Sylte
9news.com
Fri, 27 Jan 2017 18:48 UTC
This sign is not very useful given the conditions.
© Jake Gronseth with Rex BerkeyThis sign is not very useful given the conditions.
If you've been reading the news at all over the past few weeks, you might have heard that it's been snowing in the mountains. A lot.

And how much snow has Loveland Pass gotten? So much snow that it's burying a sign warning of avalanche danger.

Viewers Jake Gronseth and Rex Berkey uploaded a photo of the buried sign to Your Take. They say they took the picture at around 11 a.m. on Thursday.

"Yes, it was cold," they write." Whatever the sign says, it doesn't help very much."

After a slow start, snow has been epic at Colorado's ski areas. Loveland has gotten 115 inches of snow this January. The average amount for this time of year? Fifty eight inches.

Yeah, that's pretty epic.
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Snowflake Cold

Upheaval by John Casey, instantly frozen fish and South California freeze warnings

Adapt 2030
You Tube
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 12:38 UTC
frozen fish
John Casey's new book Upheaval is out and connects the anti-correlation of low sunspot activity and high earthquake activity. The take away is that during grand solar minimums such as the type we are entering now, there will be a major 8.0+ quake in the Mississippi River Valley destroying bridges, ripping apart gas pipelines and all trade crossing the Mississippi will come to a halt. Also Switzerland experiences the most days below zero since 1964 and flash frozen Pike with a fish in its mouth, Mastodon.
style.


Sources
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