Earth ChangesS


Windsock

Freak dust storm in north India leaves 7 dead in Rajasthan


hindustantimes
Wed, 20 May 2015 12:29 UTC
India dust storm
© Virender Singh Gosain/ HT PhotoThe dust storm kept many indoors while the rest had no option but to take cover.
A severe dust storm and light rain hit vast swathes of north India, leaving seven people dead and damaging houses in Rajasthan and affecting Metro rail services in the national capital.

A minor girl and a woman were among those killed in Rajasthan by Tuesday's freak storm, which left a trail of destruction across the state, damaging buildings, uprooting trees and electricity poles and disrupting power supply in many districts.

Five people were killed and 10 more injured in Bharatpur district in Rajasthan. Two people were killed in Bikaner while six others were injured, officials said.

While many parts of the state were hit by a massive sand storm followed by thunder squalls, there were reports of hailstorms in some areas where unseasonal rains in March had left many dead and damaged crops, triggering one of the worst agrarian crises in Rajasthan.


Read More...
Attention

Rarely-seen Cuvier's beaked whale washes up near Ahousaht, Canada

Lisa Johnson
cbc.ca
Tue, 19 May 2015 18:45 UTC
Image
© Marcie CallewaertA rare beaked whale has washed up on the beach in Ahousaht, B.C., on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The decomposing whale was spotted by a hiker on the Wild Side trail, who thought it might have been a killer whale.

Marcie Callewaert, a photographer and Grade 6 teacher who reported the whale to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, took a boat to get a closer look and was relieved the hiker was wrong.

"I was really concerned considering all the recent strandings and the status of our orca population around here. So I was really happy it wasn't an orca," said Callewaert.

No officials have visited the remote location, but Callewaert said it appears to be a Cuvier's beaked whale.

"It's just so exciting to see one in person, although it's tragic that it's dead ... just the opportunity to see it in person, I know I won't get that chance again," she said.
Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Britain battered by hail, thunder, lightning, heavy rain, high winds and sleet in unusually cold and wet May

Hannah Perry
Daily Mail
Tue, 19 May 2015 23:17 UTC
storm clouds nottingham england
Unsettled weather caused havoc to cricket's County Championship programme yesterday. Storm clouds had gathered during the LV County Championship match between Nottinghamshire and Somerset at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England
Britain was been battered by hail, thunder, lightning, heavy rain, high winds and even sleet yesterday in what has been an unusually cold and wet May.

The Met Office reported that the UK has already suffered more than it's average full month rainfall inside the first 17 days of the month.

Children from local schools in Scarborough had their cricket tournament cut short after a massive hail storm hit Wykeham, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Giant hail stones rained down on the match, covering the field in ice as pupils ran for cover.

And they weren't the only ones to have their game affected as the unsettled weather caused havoc to cricket's County Championship programme.
Read More...
Attention

3rd dead whale found in San Francisco Bay area in just over a month


news.yahoo.com
Wed, 20 May 2015 18:04 UTC
Image
© KGO-TVA whale washed up on shore near Kelly Beach in Half Moon Bay, Calif. on Tuesday, May 19, 2015.
A dead whale was found on a beach south of San Francisco on Tuesday, the same day two other dead whales that washed up weeks apart were being buried nearby after neighbors complained of their rotting smell.

The cetacean appears to be an adult gray whale, about 40 feet long, California Academy of Sciences spokeswoman Haley Bowling said.

The whale could be the same one spotted floating offshore within the last two days, Bowling said.

Scientists from the academy were en route to the scene, but the whale could easily be carried out by the tide before researchers get a chance to examine it, she said.

Read More...
Arrow Down

Broken pipeline near Santa Barbara, California leaks 21,000 gallons of oil in ocean and on beaches


RT
Wed, 20 May 2015 17:50 UTC
oil spill california coast
© Reuters/Daniel Becerril
A busted pipeline off the California coast spilled approximately 21,000 gallons of oil into the ocean and onto beaches Tuesday as officials scrambled to secure the area, Reuters reported.

The spill occurred Tuesday afternoon at a site off the Santa Barbara County coast. The pipeline is operated by Plains All American Pipeline, the US Coast Guard in Los Angeles stated. While it's unclear exactly what type of oil seeped out of the pipeline, officials from multiple government agencies, including local, federal and wildlife, responded to the scene.

The spill extended about four miles along Refugio Beach, the Coast Guard said. An official added that it had traveled about 50 yards (46 meters) into the ocean, according to Reuters.
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

More storms sweep through Texas and Oklahoma spawning over two dozen tornadoes


Weather.com
Wed, 20 May 2015 14:55 UTC
tornado tx plains
Tornado seen rolling across TX plains
Damaging storms swept across Texas and Oklahoma Tuesday, spawning more than two dozen reported tornadoes in the two states. Flash flooding also disrupted road travel in parts of the region.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, 27 reported tornadoes were spotted from Tuesday through early Wednesday morning. These reports will need to be surveyed and confirmed; crews from the National Weather Service will review the damage and determine how many tornadoes were actually in progress during this event.

The greatest concentration of tornadoes was in north Texas and southern Oklahoma, in a region generally northwest of Fort Worth and southwest of Oklahoma City.

One of those tornadoes struck Mineral Wells, Texas, Tuesday evening before sunset with reports of a roof collapse of a vacated bank building downtown. Photos from the scene showed damage to some awnings downtown, and large tree limbs were snapped in parts of the city.
Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

6 pilgrims killed in flash floods in Tamil Nadu, India

J Sam Daniel Stalin
NDTV
Mon, 18 May 2015 14:30 UTC
Pilgrims in India caught in flash flood
The pilgrims had been advised to not go to the hills following the rains, but they didnt listen, said a senior police officer.

Six pilgrims were killed in flash floods on the Sathuragiri Hills in Tamil Nadu yesterday.

Heavy rains yesterday afternoon, triggered the floods on the hills, which are a part of the Western Ghats, where more than 2,000 pilgrims had gathered since Saturday night to worship at the Sundara Mahalingam Temple, on the occasion of no-moon day.

Police, forest, and fire and rescue teams from Virudhanagar district have so far recovered the bodies of six men. "Two more people including a 16-year-old girl are missing. Our search is on. Most of the devotees have left the hills. The rains have stopped," said a senior police official.

The pilgrims had been advised by the district administration to not go to the hills following the rains, but they didn't listen, said a senior police officer.
Read More...
Snowflake

Mount Evans Highway reopening delayed due to May snow, Colorado


The Gazette
Wed, 20 May 2015 15:37 UTC
Image
Spring snow delays Mount Evans Road opening
The Mount Evans Highway will not reopen to traffic by Memorial Day weekend as planned because of heavy May snowfall.

The Colorado Department of Transportation says crews had only cleared six miles of the 14.7-mile road as of Monday.

About four 4 feet of snow has fallen in May, canceling out previous clearing work that began on April 28. CDOT officials say they also have yet to complete work stabilizing eroding parts of the highway above Lincoln Lake.

CDOT officials say they don't know when the road up to the 14,000-foot-plus peak will open.

However, they are still hoping to have Independence Pass to Aspen open on Thursday in time for the holiday weekend.

Source: Associated Press

Read More...
Snowflake Cold

Weather chaos: 'Absolutely crazy,' says Fairplay, Colorado resident about all the Spring snow


denver.cbslocal.com
Wed, 20 May 2015 14:58 UTC
Image
© CBSFairplay on Tuesday
Approximately 3,600 customers in Park County were without power because of Tuesday's snowfall.

Both Xcel Energy and the Intermountain Rural Electric Association each had about 1,800 customers without power Tuesday afternoon.

The customers without power live in Alma, Fairplay, Como, and the Grant areas in Park County.

IREA said the heavy, wet snow loaded on power lines and brought them down along with some tree limbs. Some of those branches fell on power lines and brought them down.

More than a foot of snow has fallen in Fairplay since Monday. Some places have received up to 14 inches.

Additional IREA crews are working to make repairs to restore power to all customers. There is no estimate on when power will be restored.

Xcel crews were also out Tuesday afternoon trying to fix dozens of problem areas.
Image
© David WilsonSnow in Fairplay on Tuesday
Read More...
Snowflake Cold

Weather chaos: Snow in May on the Spanish Pyrenees after heatwave in parts of Spain


spanishnewstoday.com
Wed, 20 May 2015 14:41 UTC
Image
© Efe Jorge MayoralSnow in the Pyrenees
Following the heatwave which affected the whole of Spain last week, when temperatures reached 40ºC in many parts of the country, the weather on Tuesday provided a reminder that we are in fact only in the middle of spring, with snow falling in many parts of the Pyrenees.

This snowfall provided wintry tableaux in locations such as Los Llanos del Hospital, a cross-country skiing resort in the Benasque valley in the province of Huesca (region of Aragón), and throughout the Pyrenees and other northern mountain ranges the overnight temperatures are again forecast to drop below zero on Wednesday night. In many parts of the mountains along the border between France and Spain even Wednesday's maximum temperatures were forecast to remain close to 5ºC.

These distinctly cool conditions in the mountains of the north are forecast to continue until the weekend, while maximum temperatures of close to 30ºC will be recorded in parts of the south-west.
Read More...