Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Typhoon Soudelor strikes China triggering flash floods, mudslides and power outages

Koh Gui Qing and J.R. Wu
Reuters
Sun, 09 Aug 2015 12:47 UTC
typhoon soudelor
© Reuters/StringerA man watches floodwaters in a heavy rain at a town hit by Typhoon Soudelor in Ningde, Fujian province, China, August 9, 2015.
A typhoon battered China's east coast on Sunday, killing eight people and forcing authorities to cancel hundreds of flights and evacuate more than 163,000 people.

Typhoon Soudelor killed six people in Taiwan earlier on the weekend then moved across the Taiwan Strait and slammed into the mainland's Fujian province late on Saturday.

It churned towards the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi on Sunday, the Xinhua state news agency said. The Tropical Storm Risk website downgraded Soudelor to a tropical storm as it moved inland.

Eight people were killed in Hangzhou city, CCTV state television reported, as heavy rain and wind toppled trees and triggered flash floods and mudslides.


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Cloud Grey

Waterspout forms offshore near Peddocks Island, Massachusetts

Lane Lambert
hull.wickedlocal.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:13 UTC
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© Lucinda DixonHull resident Lucinda Dixon snapped this waterspout near Peddocks Island late Tuesday afternoon.
While some Hull beach goers hurried for cover when Tuesday's afternoon storm rolled in, Lucinda Dixon headed in the opposite direction for a round of storm watching - and she got a dramatic snap of a waterspout when she did.

Dixon had parked her Jeep off the shore at Hull Gut around 4 p.m., when she noticed the spout near Peddocks Island, about a half mile away.

"I've never seen one before," she told The Patriot Ledger Wednesday. "It was there for about two minutes and then it just fell apart."

The National Weather Service's Taunton office confirmed that it got a report of the waterspout at 4:28 p.m. Tuesday.

The weather service defines them as "tornadic waterspouts," since they form over water much like tornados on land. They form downward, from clouds to water, during severe thunderstorms, high winds and hail.

Just a couple of hours before Dixon saw the spout, those enjoying the sun at Nantasket Beach included youngsters Charlotte Chandler and Simone Doyle-Trainor, both 9, who were with Charlotte's mother, Jessie Chandler, and Simone's father, Steven Trainor.

"They had to scramble, kind of pack up quickly, because the wind came up really fast," Jessie Chandler said of the girls. "They had to get out of Dodge."
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Umbrella

Waterspout rips 2 paragliders loose from boat in Malta


Times of Malta
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 15:09 UTC
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Two paragliders in Malta
Two paragliders were slightly injured after their parachute broke loose from a speedboat as a freak storm swept through Malta.

Shocked beachgoers watched on helplessly as they watched the drama unfold and screamed in horror when the cord attaching the parachute to the boat snapped under huge strain.

On seeing the 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman in trouble, bathers rushed into the sea in an attempt to hold the speedboat which had been pushed perilously close to the beach by the fierce storm.

However, the could do little except watch the two people suspended with their legs and arms flailing. Then the cord snapped and the parachute flew into a nearby field before landing in the bushes and dragged against a wall of a boathouse.

The water spout had been seen coming from a southeasterly direction at around noon. It whipped up dust from Rinella before proceeding north across Malta.

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Attention

Signs and Portents: 4 rare albino green sea turtles born on Vamizi Island, Mozambique

David Strege
grindtv.com
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 14:52 UTC
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© Joana TrindadeTwo of the four rare albino green sea turtles survived to find their way into the ocean from Vamizi Island.
Four rare albino green sea turtles hatched on Vamizi Island for the first time since a green sea turtle monitoring program began on the small, crescent-shaped island off northern Mozambique in 2003.

The Vamizi Conservation and Research team was surprised to discover the albino green sea turtles on a morning patrol of the island. The discovery was made on May 25, but news of it is only now starting to gain widespread attention.

The four albino green sea turtles, two of which survived to make their way into the ocean, lacked pigmentation in their eyes. Their red eyes indicated the hatchlings were true albinos.

"Albinism is often associated with other malformations, which is why most animals die a few hours after being born, so having two true albino hatchlings surviving and having no apparent external malformations can then be considered quite rare," Joana Trindade, conservation and community manager on Vamizi Island, told GrindTV.

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© Joana TrindadeThe albino green sea turtles surprised researchers on Vamizi Island.
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Arrow Down

School bus gets trapped in sinkhole in the Bronx


newyork.cbslocal.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:38 UTC
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A school bus transporting special-needs summer campers had a close encounter of the sinkhole kind in the Bronx on Thursday
A school bus transporting special needs children got stuck in a sinkhole in the Bronx late Thursday afternoon.

As CBS2's Jessica Schneider reported, the bus was traveling down the street down Creston Avenue toward East Burnside Avenue, in the Tremont section of the Bronx around 3 p.m.

The bus was taking special needs students to camp, officials said.

The bus went over what was then a small pothole, and ended up plummeting into what became an enormous sinkhole.

The ground opened underneath the bus to something that was about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide.

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Attention

Hiker killed by grizzly bear in Yellowstone; body found partially eaten


myfox8.com
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 10:08 UTC
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Grizzly bear
A preliminary investigation into a hiker's death in Yellowstone National Park suggest the man was attacked by a grizzly bear.

While the exact cause of death has not been determined, investigators said they identified what appear to be defensive wounds on the victim's forearms, Yellowstone National Park said in a statement Saturday. A forensic autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was found Friday in a popular off-trail area less than a mile from Elephant Back Loop Trail — an area he was known to frequent. His body was partially eaten and covered.

Based on partial tracks found at the scene, it appears that an adult female grizzly and at least one cub were present and likely involved in the incident near Yellowstone Lake, the statement said.

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Bizarro Earth

Typhoon Soudelor after-effects: Hong Kong suffers highest temperature recorded


Phys.org
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
hong kong heat wave
Tourists take pictures of haze over Hong Kong on January 9, 2014
Hong Kong on Saturday recorded its hottest day since authorities began taking temperature readings 130 years ago, due to the influence of a nearby typhoon.

The daily maximum temperature hit 36.3 degrees Celsius, the Hong Kong Observatory said, with higher temperatures recorded in some parts of the city earlier in the day.

A layer of haze hung over the metropolis of seven million, as people wielding electric fans and umbrellas tried in vain to beat the boiling heat.

"This is a new record," a Hong Kong Observatory spokesman told AFP.
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Fish

Scary looking new species of anglerfish discovered in depths of Gulf of Mexico

Jennifer Viegas
D News
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 15:38 UTC
new species anglerfish
© Theodore Pietsch, University of Washington
A new species of fish that researchers describe as being "downright scary looking" has just been discovered in the deep sea.

The new anglerfish, which has been placed in the genus Lasiognathus, adds to the growing number of formidable-looking known species in the deep sea. This particular fish, described in the journal Copeia, was found at nearly 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico's northern region.

"As a researcher, the one thing I know is that there's so much more we can learn about our oceans," co-author Tracey Sutton of Nova Southeastern University said in a press release. "Every time we go out on a deep-sea research excursion there's a good chance we'll see something we've never seen before — the life at these depths is really amazing."

The fish was found during ongoing work looking at the effects of oil spills on deep-sea marine life. It was identified based on three females.
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Attention

Charging boars kill man in Sicily

Gavin Jones
Reuters
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 19:43 UTC
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© AlamyWild boar
A 77-year-old Italian man was killed by a group of wild boars on Saturday as he tried to defend his dogs from the charging animals near his home in Sicily, local police reported.

Salvatore Rinaudo was walking his dogs in the countryside outside the town of Cefalu, near the Sicilian capital of Palermo, when he was attacked and bitten to death despite his wife's attempt to save him, police said. She was also injured in the attack by the wild animals, which can weigh up to 150 kg.

The mayor of Cefalu said he had repeatedly warned of the dangers of the local boar population but his calls for a cull had been rejected by regional authorities.

Italian agriculture lobby Coldiretti described the uncontrolled spread of wild boars that destroy harvests, kill farm animals, cause road accidents and increasingly put human lives at risk as a "national emergency".

"It's no longer just a question of claiming for damages, it has become a question of safety for people who live in the country," Coldiretti said in a statement.
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Arrow Down

Sinkhole swallows car in El Paso, Texas


Laredo Morning Times
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 18:40 UTC
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EPWU worked the scene until the late afternoon on Thursday. The car was pulled from the hole and towed and its driver did not suffer any injuries, according to KVIA.

KVIA news reported the five to six-foot deep hole was the result of a water main break that happened around 5:30 a.m. at the intersection of Shadow Mountain and Thunderbird on the city's West Side.

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