Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Wrecks, flooding, mudslides slam California as rain finally comes

Lisa Fernandez
ABC News Bay Area
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 19:49 UTC
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Rain pelted the Bay Area for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, leading to a flurry of car wrecks, flooding and mudslide watches amid an otherwise welcome break from California's severe drought.

Flashing lights and sirens were common on the highways, with crashes reported before the sun came up on Interstate Highway 880 in Hayward and Highway 17 near Santa Cruz.. Flooding appeared in parts of San Francisco, including on northbound Interstate 280 at the Cesar Chavez offramp and the Ellis onramp at southbound U.S. Highway 101, which had a puddle that stretched 40 feet long and 15 feet wide.
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Question

Cold weather movement? Southern California invaded by dozens of rare varied thrushes

Sanden Totten
scpr.org
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:42 UTC
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© Minette Layne via Creative Commons
A rare and striking bird is showing up in large numbers in Southern California.

It's called the varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) and it has deep yellow and black stripes with patches of white on its underside.

Normally, this species lives in the Pacific Northwest and travels no further south than San Francisco

For some reason, this year is different.

"It's turning up in all these parks and just flying overhead and people are seeing it in all these weird places," said Dan Cooper, an L.A. based biologist and birder watcher.

In addition to it's eye catching color, the varied thrush also has a distinct bird call that sounds almost like a tea kettle whistling.

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Arrow Down

2 men escape car moments before it topples into sinkhole, China


khou.com
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 17:59 UTC
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© KHOUSink hole in China
Two men jumped out of a car just in time in China.

A CCTV camera captured the moment a sinkhole formed in the middle of an intersection. One driver apparently couldn't see the whole and partially drove into. Both he and his passenger got out, just as the car fell into the hole upside down.

There were no injuries reported.

According to CBS News, Chinese officials said sand under the road gave way, creating the hole.

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Ice Cube

Freezing rain blankets Budapest causing power outages to 40K homes

Marton Dunai
Reuters
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 16:59 UTC
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The entire forest in the hills at Pilis, south-east of Budapest, was covered in cloud and fog, freezing the rain and fog solid on the branches.
About 40,000 homes on the outskirts of Budapest went without electricity on Tuesday as freezing rain blanketed the area and falling trees cut power lines, Hungary's Disaster Relief Agency said.

Heavy branches fell and entire trees toppled as ice as thick as 10 centimeters (4 inches) coated them, threatening entire forests in altitudes above 400 meters, according to people who ventured to higher-lying areas.

Forestry services closed off large tracts of land located higher than 400 meters above sea level to prevent injuries. No deaths or injuries have been reported.

One forestry worker who visited the Borzsony Mountains north of Budapest said the woods echoed with loud cracks and hissing sounds as branches and trunks gave way under tons of ice.
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Bizarro Earth

Northwest Montana rattled by two more earthquakes felt in McGregor Lake area

Justin Franz
Flathead Beacon
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:49 UTC
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© jimbosjourneys.comMcGregor Lake
Just three weeks after a pair of rare earthquakes rattled windows and bookshelves, two more seismic events were reported in the Flathead Valley and scientists say this could be an indication that a seismic "swarm" has begun in the area.

On Dec. 1 at 5:40 a.m., a 3.0 magnitude earthquake shook the McGregor Lake area, almost the exact same area impacted by the 4.0 quake on Nov. 11. The epicenter of the earthquake was 3.6 miles beneath the surface. Less than three hours later at 8:13 a.m., a 3.5 magnitude earthquake 5.3 miles below the surface shook the same exact area.

Mike Stickney, director of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology's Earthquake Studies Office, said there were a number of reports from local residents who said they felt the second quake.

Earthquakes are rare but not unheard of in Northwest Montana and Stickney said the series of shakes could indicate that a seismic "swarm" is beginning.

Comment: 4.7 magnitude earthquake strikes near Sedona, Arizona

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Bizarro Earth

Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz volcano shows increasing signs of unrest


Volcano Discovery
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:05 UTC
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According to the latest report of the Manizales observatory, the volcano's activity recently changed and is showing increased signs of unrest, which could announce a new eruption to come.

A recent aerial survey by the Colombian air force revealed a deposit of fresh ash on the southern flank, indicating that at least sporadic explosions or ash emissions - presumably phreatic in nature - do indeed occur.

In addition, since about 2 weeks ago, seismic activity has been significantly higher than previously. Phases of tremor and more frequent shallow volcano-tectonic earthquakes suggest increased movements of fluids (magma, gas, water) inside the volcano. Most of the events are concentrated in an area southeast under Arenas crater.

Comment: The Earth is waking up of late:

Japan's huge Mt. Aso belching smoke and ash 1,000 metres into the air

Residents evacuated as Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde erupts after a 20 year silence

Aleutian Islands' Shishaldin volcano being watched following increase in seismic activity overnight

6 volcanic quakes at Philippines' Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hrs

Mexico's Colima volcano erupts, sending ash 3 miles into the sky

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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.3 - 102km WSW of Sangay, Philippines


US Geological Survey
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 06:37 UTC
Sangay Quake_021214
© USGS
Event Time
2014-12-02 05:11:31 UTC
2014-12-02 13:11:31 UTC+08:00 at epicenter

Location
6.138°N 123.168°E depth=617.9km (384.0mi)

Nearby Cities
102km (63mi) WSW of Sangay, Philippines
107km (66mi) WSW of Kalamansig, Philippines
133km (83mi) SW of South Upi, Philippines
146km (91mi) ESE of Isabela, Philippines
920km (572mi) E of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Scientific Data
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Snowflake Cold

Wheat kill-off in the U.S. heartland from extreme cold during November

Robert Felix
Ice Age Now
Sat, 29 Nov 2014 20:21 UTC
2015-2035 Mini Ice Age - Extreme cold in the U.S. heartland where farming takes place
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With 130-year cold sweeping across the USA, temperatures -50F below normal are bound to have an effect on winter wheat seedlings that are just a few inches tall.

Temperatures dropped to -26F/-32C, which caused an 8% increase in wheat futures.

Thanks to David DuByne, who created this video.
"I think the cold will not be the regular interval of Dalton or Maunder Minimum type cold," says David. "I think we may be heading into a 5125-year cold cycle."

Comment: SOTT has been talking about this for quite some time: Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow

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Ice Cube

Rare ice storm strikes Waldviertel in Austria


thelocal.at
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 20:00 UTC
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© APA/FF Ottenschlag/FichtingerFirefighters preventing a tree from damaging a power line.
The fire service was called out more than 200 times over the weekend in the district of Zwettl (Lower Austria) as a rare ice storm hit the region, bringing chaos with layers of frozen ice in trees.

Firefighters have been busy clearing away hundreds of trees from the vicinity of homes and power lines. The trees' branches had been bent almost double by the weight of the ice. The area near Ottenschlag has particularly been hit hard. A combination of very low temperatures and high humidity caused many layers of thick frost to form into heavy ice.

Motorists in the region have been asked to exercise extreme caution due to icy conditions on the roads. Northeast Fire Department spokesman Franz Resperger described on Sunday how many trees were destroyed by the ice, including some with trunks more than a meter in diameter.

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Info

Biocide! Abandoned fishing nets trapping the ocean's turtles, seals, sharks and birds

Melissa Hills
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 15:22 UTC
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Experts say up to 14,000 turtles could have died at the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia in the last nine years
These appalling photos reveal the largely unknown damage that abandoned fishing gear dubbed 'ghost nets' in a new campaign is doing to animals in the ocean surrounding Australia.

Turtles are the main victims that get trapped in abandoned nets in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia and experts estimate there could have been 14,000 that have died over the last nine years, large numbers of seals are also getting caught up in the nets across the country's waters.

World Animal Protection has launched the Sea Change campaign with the aim to make fishermen, fisheries and the general public more aware of this problem and they want to save one million animals by 2018.

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