Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Hail storm in Gatlinburg, Tennessee looks like a nightmare

Gatlinburg,Tennessee
Las Vegas Review Journal
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 17:37 UTC
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© irishgurrier/YouTubeHail stones
Summer hasn't officially started, but severe thunderstorms in the midwest and south didn't get the memo.

An intense (to say the least) hail storm hit the town of Gatlinburg, Tenn., last week for about 10 minutes, according to YouTuber irishgurrier, who uploaded video of the June 2 storm.

The video shows hail coming down so hard you can't see past the house he's standing by, as it pounds nearby vehicles, creating a massive pile of ice.

In an aftermath video, the person recording is seen walking through the piles of ice ... in flip flops.

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Dominoes

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile hit with magnitude 6.0 earthquake


USGS
Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:52 UTC
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Time
  1. 2015-06-10 13:52:08 (UTC)
  2. 2015-06-10 09:52:08 (UTC-04:00) in your timezone
  3. Times in other timezones
Nearby Cities
  1. 57km (35mi) NNW of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
  2. 62km (39mi) E of Calama, Chile
  3. 195km (121mi) E of Tocopilla, Chile
  4. 252km (157mi) ENE of Antofagasta, Chile
  5. 654km (406mi) S of La Paz, Bolivia
Tectonic Summary

Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)

The South American arc extends over 7,000 km, from the Chilean margin triple junction offshore of southern Chile to its intersection with the Panama fracture zone, offshore of the southern coast of Panama in Central America. It marks the plate boundary between the subducting Nazca plate and the South America plate, where the oceanic crust and lithosphere of the Nazca plate begin their descent into the mantle beneath South America. The convergence associated with this subduction process is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains, and for the active volcanic chain present along much of this deformation front. Relative to a fixed South America plate, the Nazca plate moves slightly north of eastwards at a rate varying from approximately 80 mm/yr in the south to approximately 65 mm/yr in the north. Although the rate of subduction varies little along the entire arc, there are complex changes in the geologic processes along the subduction zone that dramatically influence volcanic activity, crustal deformation, earthquake generation and occurrence all along the western edge of South America.
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Cloud Lightning

Waterspout seen on Lake Moultrie, South Carolina

Ray Rivera
live5news.com
Tue, 09 Jun 2015 15:14 UTC
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© Randy TaylorWaterspout over Lake Moultrie
A waterspout formed on Lake Moultrie Tuesday afternoon giving some excitement to some nearby workers and vacationers.

Workers at the Cross Generating Station noticed the waterspout around 2 p.m., and took pictures and video as it formed on the lake.

Randy Taylor shot video of it around 2:20 p.m. as it moved slowly along the water.

Several people in surrounding areas also submitted pictures of the waterspout.

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Fish

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigating fish kill on Panhandle beaches

Katie Tammen
newsherald.com
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 14:33 UTC
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© Nick Tomecek | GateHouse Media ServicesLauren Denny of Springfield, Mo., moves dead fish out of her way as she wades into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday near a public beach access on Okaloosa Island.
Multiple agencies, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), are looking into why hundreds of fish are washing up on some Panhandle beaches.

Reports began rolling in over the weekend from people on beaches across Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, according to Catalina Brown, the Fish Kill Hotline coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

"It's too early for us to know what it could be," Brown said.

Katy Krueger was out walking on Navarre Beach on Monday morning when she encountered the dead fish.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 3 in Satkhira, Bangladesh


The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Wed, 10 Jun 2015 11:18 UTC
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Three people including a woman were killed and three injured in lightning during a storm that swept through three villages in Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira this morning.

The dead were identified as Abdul Hamid of Taranipur village, Sajida Begum, 25, wife of Azet Ali of Patrakhola, and Ziad Ali, 65, of Paranpur village of the upazila, our Satkhira correspondent reports quoting witnesses.

Hamid was killed by lightning when he was going to his shrimp farm while Sajida hit by thunderbolt when she was working at her house, Ramzan Nagar union parishad chairman Akbar Ali confirmed to the Daily Star.

Ziad was struck by thunderbolt at an open space, leaving him dead on the spot.
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Cloud Precipitation

More flooding and landslides hit South China

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Tue, 09 Jun 2015 10:45 UTC
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Flooding in China
Southern provinces of China have been plagued by heavy rain over the last 5 weeks, many of them enduring the wettest May for 40 years, according to China's National Meteorological Center (NMC).

Deadly floods struck on 11 May 2015 in southern China, when 7 people died. Since then, dozens more have lost their lives, including 10 people over the last 2 days, where heavy rainfall has affected 9 provinces and municipalities.

According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the affected areas are Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou. The Ministry said yesterday that at least 10 people have been killed in flood-related incidents over the last 2 days, including drowning, landslides and collapsed buildings. At least 4 people are still missing.


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Cloud Precipitation

8,000 affected by flooding in Guatemala

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Tue, 09 Jun 2015 10:35 UTC
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© CONREDHigh river levels after heavy rain in Guatemala, June 2015.
Guatemala's disaster management agency, Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres (CONRED), said that over 8,000 people have been affected by heavy rainfall, which has caused landslides and floods, since Saturday, 06 June 2015. The worst affected areas are the departments of Guatemala and Sacatepéquez.

Flooding in the city of Antigua Guatemala, in Sacatepequez department, affected over 5,000 people. CONRED say that the flooding was worsened by garbage blocking the city's drainage system.

The heavy rains caused a landslide at kilometer 24 of the CA-1 route, on the road to El Salvador, in the municipality of Fraijanes, Guatemala department. CONRED say that the landslide debris has since been cleared and the road re-opened.
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Fire

Hundreds of lightning strikes have sparked dozens of wildfires in Oregon

Nick Budnick
The Oregonian
Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:12 UTC
Oregon wildfires
© Douglas Forest Protective AssociationThe Corn Creek Fire is burning about 14 miles east of Canyonville, near the community of Milo.
Hundreds of lightning strikes have sparked dozens of wildfires on state and federal land in southern Oregon since Monday, and continued thunderstorms and high winds have prompted a "red flag" fire warning for Hood River, Curry, Josephine, Jackson, and Klamath counties.

On a day when the Obama administration warned of potentially catastrophic wildfires in the Northwest and Southwest this summer, Oregon officials say fire season has begun far earlier than usual.

"This is the earliest that I can remember in a long time," said Don Ferguson, a spokesman for BLM's Medford district. "I heard someone say it's burning like August out there. "

Fire officials in Klamath and Lake counties made it official on Friday, declaring that fire season regulations are in effect.

The recent lightning strikes have often come without significant rainfall. Officials on Tuesday said state and federal fire teams had started battling the majority of fires by late afternoon. While most of them were a tenth of an acre, there were exceptions.

Comment: In Germany, 33 people have been injured after lightning struck one of the country's biggest music festivals.

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Wolf

Dog attacks in London up by 50% in a year

John Stratford
heart.co.uk
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 17:23 UTC
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A dangerous dog
New figures have revealed the number of dog attacks in London went up fifty per cent last year.

There were more than 1,400, partly because offences on private property are now included.

On 13 May 2014, The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was amended so that the term "a public place" was substituted to "any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place)".

Before this, dog bites and attacks on private property were excluded.

Between January and December 2014 there were a total of 1,400 offences recorded, representing an average of 177 offences per month. August 2014 experienced the peak during this period with 141 offences.

The boroughs of Croydon and Barnet recorded the highest numbers of attacks followed by Southwark, Hillingdon and Bromley.
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Binoculars

'Blown off course': Eurasian crane seen in Churchill, Canada

Bryce Hoye
cbc.ca
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 16:34 UTC
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© Jenafor AzureChristian Artuso with Bird Studies Canada said the sighting represents a first for Manitoba. The Eurasian crane, standing right of a sandhill crane, was first spotted in North America in 1957 and has only been seen a handful of times in the U.S. and Canada since then.
Jenafor Azure was out for a drive with her husband in Churchill, Man., over the weekend when she spotted some unusual wildlife.

June in Churchill presents excellent wildlife-viewing opportunities for bird watchers at the height of migration season. Droves of ecotourists head up north at this time of year to do just that.

But one thing most Churchill tourists will never see — certainly something Azure never expected to see — is a slender, prehistoric-looking bird commonly found in the Eurasian boreal forests of Russia and Asia that can grow to be over four feet tall.

"I've never seen anything like it. It's a really magnificent bird," Azure said Sunday after the sighting. "At first I thought the zoo had lost a bird or something!"

What Azure said she spotted, and what many people in Churchill have since ventured out in search of, was a Eurasian crane.
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