Earth ChangesS


Ice Cube

Major West Antarctic glacier melting from geothermal sources


Science Daily
Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:55 UTC
Antarctica, thwaites
© University of Texas at AustinThwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.
Thwaites Glacier, the large, rapidly changing outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is not only being eroded by the ocean, it's being melted from below by geothermal heat, researchers at the Institute for Geophysics at The University of Texas at Austin (UTIG) report in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings significantly change the understanding of conditions beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet where accurate information has previously been unobtainable.

The Thwaites Glacier has been the focus of considerable attention in recent weeks as other groups of researchers found the glacier is on the way to collapse, but more data and computer modeling are needed to determine when the collapse will begin in earnest and at what rate the sea level will increase as it proceeds. The new observations by UTIG will greatly inform these ice sheet modeling efforts.

Using radar techniques to map how water flows under ice sheets, UTIG researchers were able to estimate ice melting rates and thus identify significant sources of geothermal heat under Thwaites Glacier. They found these sources are distributed over a wider area and are much hotter than previously assumed.

Comment: For more reading on this subject check out the recent Sott Focus: Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man-made global warming can't explain this climate paradox

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Cloud Lightning

Violent storms kill six as high winds and floods hit Germany

Jill Reilly
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:40 UTC
Image
Lightning bolts illuminate the sky as they strike near high voltage power lines in Sehnde, near Hanover. At least six people have died in western Germany as heavy rains, hail and high winds battered the region
* In Duesseldorf, two men and a woman were killed when a large tree fell on them

* Police say two bicyclists were killed when hit by falling tree limbs in separate incidents in Cologne and Krefeld

* A man in Essen collapsed and died near midnight as he was working to clear debris from a street

* Storm front moved further northeast and there are weather warnings for regions including Hanover and Bremen

Heavy rains, hail and high winds have left at least six people dead in western Germany after violent storms battered the region.

In the North Rhine-Westphalia capital of Duesseldorf, police said two men and a woman who had sought refuge in a garden house were killed late Monday when a large tree fell on the building, the dpa news agency reported Tuesday.

Firefighters were able to rescue six others, who were taken to hospitals.

Image
Lightning illuminates the sky as storm fronts move east near Soest. Many flights from Duesseldorf airport were delayed and some train routes were still closed today
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Cloud Lightning

Huge hail pelts Paris as severe thunderstorms erupt in Western Europe

Andrew Freedman
Mashable
Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00 UTC
Paris hail
It's not just the U.S. that has suffered a damaging onslaught of massive, wind-driven hails lately. On Sunday and Monday, powerful thunderstorms erupted across France and Belgium, dropping baseball to tennis-ball-sized hail near Brussels as well as the French countryside. Hail also fell in Paris overnight Sunday. These hailstones formed inside massive supercell thunderstorms, which are long-lived storms that feature rotating updrafts, which allows them to produce large hail, damaging winds, and in some cases, tornadoes.

While thunderstorms are typical in France during the summer, this storm outbreak has produced unusually large hail for the region, and it has hit Paris particularly hard.

As of Monday evening in France, Meteo France had posted an "Orange Alert" across west-central and northern parts of the country, with the threat of severe weather stretching northeastward into Belgium and the Netherlands. Meteo France is urging people to take "special vigilance" as the country faces yet another stormy night.

Europe thunderstorms
Visible satellite photo centered on France, showing bright white clusters of thunderstorms across northwest France and Belgium.
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Sun

Delhi, India temperature touches 47.8 C, highest in 62 years


India Today
Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:15 UTC
India record temperature
© PTI photoYoungsters beat the heat as mercury soars in New Delhi on Sunday.
Temperature in the Capital touched 45.1 degree Celsius on Sunday while it was 47.8 degree C in and around Palam airport making it the hottest day in 62 years giving no respite to people reeling under a blistering heat wave.

Adding to the woes of heat-ravaged Delhiites, frequent power cuts across the city aggravated the situation and made life miserable.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said there is no relief likely from the heat wave on Monday and similar weather conditions will continue.
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Cloud Lightning

Brazil floods kill nine


globalpost
Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:15 UTC
Brazil flood
© ReutersGoalposts stand in a soccer field flooded by the waters of the Paraguay River in Asuncion on May 30, 2014.
Flooding caused by torrential rains over the weekend has killed at least nine people and left three missing in southern Brazil, officials said Monday, declaring an emergency in 77 towns.

The flood-hit areas include the state of Parana, whose capital, Curitiba, is one of the 12 host cities for the World Cup, which opens Thursday.

The worst-affected areas however are located around 300 kilometers (185 miles) from Curitiba.

More than 55,000 people's homes were flooded in the 77 towns where Parana Governor Beto Richa declared a state of emergency.
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Red Flag

Everglades brush fire burns 20,000 acres, covers South Florida in smoke

Carli Teproff and Beatrice Dupuy
Miami Herald
Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00 UTC
everglades fire
People just waking up didn't know what to make of the strange haze hanging in the sky. Was it fog? Was a nearby building on fire? Was it a Miami Heat hangover?

For hours on Monday morning, the surreal scene covered much of South Florida, cutting visibility in some places to a mile or two, obliterating parts of the skyline, closing a major road, forcing a health advisory, and sending first-day summer campers indoors.

The smoke came from a huge Everglades brush fire in West Broward, which burned nearly 20,000 acres, according to the Florida Forest Service.

Less smoke wafted into the suburbs and along the coast Tuesday morning, although the fire continued to burn.

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Question

Death toll mounts for harbor porpoises on San Juan Island shores

Scott Rasmussen
San Juan Journal
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:22 UTC
Image
© Stranding Network A Stranding Network volunteer takes notes on a harbor porpoise.
An uptick in harbor porpoise strandings has local biologists scratching their heads, looking for clues and wary that mid-May's unusually high death toll may signal something other than the natural die-off of a population on the rise.

Although, that just might be the case.

"We've also heard there's been an increase in the number of strandings in the (British Columbia) area," said The Whale Museum's Jennifer Olsen, coordinator of the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network. "But we're not sure of what the total is or exactly where they were found. We didn't have a single stranding a year ago in May."
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Fish

Deep water alien fish hauled out of the Gulf by Houston fisherman

Heather Alexander
Houston Chronicle
Wed, 04 Jun 2014 07:32 UTC
Image
Meet Cullen Greer, the man who caught a 300-lb alien fish
A Houston fisherman's latest catch is going viral after after photos came out of a massive Warsaw Grouper he caught off the Louisiana coast.

Cullen Greer caught the huge 267-pound fish at the end of May and is looking to get into the state record books. His 6' 6" long giant would be the fifth largest ever caught in this species.

KETK report that Greer hopes the ugly grouper will also rank as the third largest caught on a hand crank.
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Ice Cube

Icebergs still floating on Lake Superior in June


CBS Minnesota
Sat, 07 Jun 2014 12:43 UTC
iceberg lake superior
© Winsconsin DNR
It may be June, but a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warden discovered some icebergs still afloat in Lake Superior near Madeline Island on Friday.

DNR Marine Warden Amie Egstad spotted the floating ice - which was covered in resting seagulls - while doing a routine check of commercial nets in the largest of the Great Lakes.

Comment: So much for 'global warming'! Considering the extremely cold winter and the unprecedented ice cover on the Great Lakes this winter, it's hardly surprising to see icebergs still floating on the lake:
Why it's a big deal: Half of the Great Lakes are still covered in ice
Drastically cold temperatures create greatest ice cover on the Great Lakes in 20 years
Ice Age Cometh: Great Lakes ice cover spreading rapidly - Lake Superior sets new record

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Butterfly

Monarch butterfly decline linked to the spread of GM crops in U.S.

Emily Chung
cbc.ca
Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:15 UTC
Image
© Tyler Flockhart Tyler Flockhart, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Guelph, led the analysis, which combined all the known data about monarch populations and the factors that influence them.
Milkweed essential to monarchs in decline because of herbicides used with genetically modified crops

The main cause of the monarch butterfly's decline is the loss of milkweed - its food - in its U.S. breeding grounds, a new study has found. That all but confirms that the spread of genetically modified crops is indirectly killing the monarch.

This past winter, the number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico fell to its lowest since 1993, when records first started being kept, the World Wildlife Fund and Mexico's Environment Department reported in January. That report blamed the loss of milkweed owing to genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the U.S. and illegal logging in the butterflies' Mexican wintering ground.
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