Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Tropical Storm Simon poised to become hurricane off coast of Mexico


The Weather Channel
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:05 UTC
Tropical Storm Simon became the eighteenth named storm of the 2014 eastern Pacific hurricane season off the coast of Mexico early Thursday.
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Simon is embedded in an environment of relatively low wind shear (changing wind direction and/or speed with height typically hostile to developing or mature tropical cyclones), moist air, and warm sea-surface temperatures which should support strengthening for the next few days. Simon may become a hurricane in the next day or so.

Simon is expected to track toward the west-northwest over the next several days, with its center likely to remain offshore of the Mexican Pacific coast.

That said, outer rainbands on the periphery of Simon's circulation will continue to wring out locally heavy rain through Friday, which could trigger flash flooding and mudslides across western Jalisco, western Sinaloa, Nayarit in western Mexico. In addition, high surf and dangerous rip currents will also threaten coastal areas.
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Ice Cube

Previously unknown ice-covered trench hidden beneath two massive, bluish glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica

Laura Geggel
LiveScience
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 16:58 UTC
Ice-penetrating radar has uncovered a previously unknown ice-covered trench, and other detailed terrain, in the bedrock hidden beneath two massive, bluish glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.
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The gaping features were revealed in the first, highly detailed 3D maps of the frozen bedrock - the land under Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier and Antarctica's Byrd Glacier - which may help researchers predict how glaciers, ice sheets and sea levels may change in the future.

"Without bed topography, you cannot build a decent ice-sheet model," lead researcher Prasad Gogineni, director of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas, said in a statement.
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Snowflake Cold

130 year record low temperature in Vladivostok, Russia

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Thu, 02 Oct 2014 16:43 UTC
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Snow in the Perm region. The autumn weather breaks records.
Earlier than normal snowfall in the Perm region.

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2 Oct 2014 - Snowfall in early October in the Perm area "is not the norm for the region," said Andrew Shikhova, of the Regional Center for Geographic Information Systems.

Another record was broken in Vladivostok, which registered the lowest absolute minimum air temperature in more than 130-year history of weather observations.

Tuesday morning in the seaside capital was only plus one degree Celsius.
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Cloud Precipitation

Typhoon Phanfone will likely become 'super typhoon' heading to Japan


Mashable.com
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 16:51 UTC
Typhoon Phanfone is gathering strength in the western Pacific Ocean, with projections showing that it may intensify significantly - likely to super typhoon status - before veering toward mainland Japan by Oct. 5.
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© NOAATyphoon Phanfone, currently over open waters of the West Pacific, may make landfall in Japan in a few days.
Computer-model simulations on Wednesday show that the storm will likely intensify over the next few days, while moving northwest, toward extreme southwest Japan or the open East China Sea. However, winds in the upper atmosphere should turn the storm north and then northeast, potentially making a direct hit on several Japanese islands, and scoring a direct hit on Tokyo as a Category One storm.

Japan has already been affected by three tropical cyclones this season, including Typhoon Halong, Tropical Storm Nakri and Typhoon Neguri. Southwest Japan has experienced widespread flooding from the combination of these storms and other weather systems.
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Bizarro Earth

Shocking groundwater loss in California revealed in NASA images

Karen Kaplan
LA Times
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 16:45 UTC
This week, scientists working on the GRACE mission released a series of images that reflect the drastic loss of groundwater over the last dozen years. The image on the left was taken in June 2002, just three months after GRACE was launched. The one in the middle was taken in June 2008, and the one on the right is from June 2014.

These are not satellite photographs. The colors indicate how much groundwater has been lost over time.
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© UC Irvine, NASAThis series of satellite images reflects the huge loss of groundwater in California
Worst hit, according to NASA, are the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River basins, where water has been pumped out to support agriculture in the Central Valley and elsewhere. Since 2011, the amount of water removed from these river basins each year added up to 4 trillion gallons. That's "an amount far greater than California's 38 million residents use in cities and homes annually," NASA noted.
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Question

Dolphin 'attacks' five swimmers in Galway Bay, Ireland


RTÉ News
Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:40 UTC
Dolphin Attack
© John McGrathThe RNLI Lifeboat was called to the scene shortly before 7.30pm.
Five swimmers had a lucky escape in Galway Bay this evening, when a dolphin came a little too close for comfort. The swimmers were enjoying a dip at Blackrock in Salthill when the dolphin approached and began to circle the area around them. The RNLI Lifeboat was called to the scene shortly before 7.30pm.

Another local boat was also involved in trying to create a barrier between the dolphin and the swimmers. Although they were not seriously injured, the swimmers sustained a number of nudges from the dolphin during their time in the water.

They managed to swim to safety a short time after the arrival of the lifeboat. The RNLI crew subsequently conducted a shoreline search along the Salthill coast to ensure no other swimmers were in difficulty.

Comment: See also: Aggressive dolphin tried to push swimmer underwater off the coast of Ireland

Dolphin attacks swimmers in Doolin Harbor, Ireland

Rise of the killer dolphins: 'Alarming' rise in fatal attacks on porpoises leaves experts puzzled in Wales

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Black Cat

Cougars stalking and killing dogs in Vernon, British Columbia

Charlotte Helston
infotel.ca
Tue, 30 Sep 2014 21:42 UTC
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© WildsafeBC
A Vernon family is readjusting to life without their beloved family dog after he was killed by a cougar in their backyard.

Milton, a six-year-old Chihuahua/Maltese, was let out to play as usual the morning of Sept. 21 in the backyard of the family's McLennan Road property in the BX area of Vernon. But when he didn't come back when he was called, his owners went out looking for him on the acreage, covering ground on a quad, getting more and more worried as the hours passed.

"We just wanted to find him," says the woman, who asked for anonymity to preserve her privacy.

When she did find him, he was much closer than she expected. She was home alone, hours after Milton first went missing and from where she sat in her yard, she could hear branches cracking in a nearby tree and followed the sound.
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Bizarro Earth

Hawaii's Kīlauea Volcano alert level raised to Warning level


US Geological Survey
Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:30 UTC
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© USGS

Current Volcano Alert Level: WARNING

Current Aviation Color Code: ORANGE

Volcanic Activity Summary: The June 27th flow remains active with a narrow flow moving about 30 m (100 ft) ahead of the previously stalled flow front and lava breakouts occurring from the lava tube about 8 km (5 mi) behind the flow front near where lava entered a crack system on August 18. The narrow flow front moved about 75 m/day (245 ft/day) since September 29, overtaking the stalled flow front during the past 24 hours. The leading edge is 2.3 km (1.4 miles) upslope from Apa'a St. and 3.3 km (2.1 mi) from Pāhoa Village Road, and approximately 16.4 km (10.2 miles) straight-line distance from the vent. Because this flow is moving very slowly and lava discharge from the vent remains low, we do not offer a projection of its future movement. Our next overflight is scheduled for Friday.

Pāhoa town is in the Puna District of the County of Hawai'i.

Recent Observations:
[Lava flow] A narrow flow has moved about 30 m (100 ft) past the stalled flow front in the past 24 hours. This flow has moved about 150 m (490 ft) since September 29.

Hazard Analysis:
[Lava flow] The June 27th lava flow from Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent is active with fresh lava being supplied to the flow front. The flow is slowly advancing downslope toward Pāhoa town.
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Fish

Dozens of dead sharks found on North Carolina beach


wfla.com
Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:42 UTC
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Dead sharks wash up on NC beach
Dozens of dead sharks were found washed ashore on a popular beach in Brunswick County, North Carolina this weekend.

Photos show some 50 dead sharks on the shore at a beach in Oak Island on Sunday morning.

The unidentified sharks range in size from one-foot to five-feet in length.

Officials with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries removed the sharks and are investigating to determine their exact cause of death.

The issue is under the jurisdiction of the NC Division of Marine Fisheries since the sharks were found below the tide line.

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Sun

U.S. Drought Monitor: California drought covers 100% of state

Richard Heim, NCDC/NOAA
Droughtmonitor.unl.edu
Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:00 UTC
U.S. Drought Monitor for California as of September 30, 2014:

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