Earth ChangesS


Ice Cube

Winter storms leave 317,000 people without power in northeastern U.S.


Press TV
Mon, 23 Dec 2013 01:03 UTC
winter storms
Fallen branches from ice-laden trees obstructed roads, leaving many area residents without electricity, and many intersections without traffic signals.
Sever winter storm leaves nearly 317,000 people without electricity power in northeastern states of Michigan,New York and Vermont.

Authorities are warning that more power outages could occur as winds were expected to pick up and ice-coated tree branches may break and take down more power lines.

According to Erica Donerson, the spokeswoman of DTE Energy, about 119,000 of their customers are already without power in southeastern Michigan.

Donerson added that the effect of ice storm could be felt for several days in northern Oakland County, Lapeer County and Livingston County.

"While many customers lose power soon after the storm hits, electrical outages may continue to occur over the next several days, as branches -- still loaded with ice -- break and bring down power lines," she said in a statement.

"A quarter of an inch of ice is the equivalent of 500 pounds of weight on a span of power line."
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Eye 2

Rare albino corn snake found on M3 in Hampshire, UK

Julian Robinson
Southern Daily Echo
Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:19 UTC
Image
The albino corn snake found by the M3
This slithering snake was certainly not where it was supposed to be.

Mystery surrounds how the colourful non-native corn snake found its way on to the busy M3 at junction 13 - not far from Eastleigh's Premier Inn hotel.

The reptile was spotted wriggling along the verge by maintenance teams from EM Highway Services, who look after 1,200km of roads in the south.

Often kept as a pet, the albino corn snake is not venomous and is likely to have escaped a home or been abandoned.

EM Highway Services environmental manager Ricky Taylor, said: "Operatives were performing routine maintenance when they noticed some movement on the verge.

"They investigated it and found a non-native snake. They managed to capture and keep it safe until an EM ecologist arrived to identify it and arrange for its removal.

"This is one lucky snake as I'm sure it wouldn't have survived long in the current temperature.

"My assumption is that it's someone's pet from the local area. We have asked a reptile group to look after it, as it shouldn't be outside at this time of year. Hopefully it will be ok."
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Arrow Up

Surprise surge in orcas and humpback whales in British Columbia waters

Jeff Bell
Vancouver Sun
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 14:17 UTC
Image
© Victoria Times ColonistRecord numbers of transient orcas and humpbacks have been sighted in Island waters.
Someone forgot to tell the whales around Victoria and the San Juan Islands that this is their off-season.

Many whale-watching companies are holding off on their winter shutdowns because record numbers of transient orcas and humpbacks are in Island waters, said Michael Harris, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association.

"It's the time when they pull out of the water and they do maintenance on the boat or they take their vacation," Harris said.

"But they're still working and it's really demand-based and it's whale-based and it's weather-based."

Comment: See also: Volcanic eruptions, rising CO2, boiling oceans, and why man-made global warming is not even wrong

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Eye 1

Brown pelicans found dead with slashed pouches in Florida Keys


tbo.com
Sat, 21 Dec 2013 13:59 UTC
Image
© Scripps Media, IncThe search is on for the person wildlife rangers said slashed and ripped open the pouches of several Brown Pelicans in South Florida.
Authorities are investigating the deaths of several brown pelicans found with their pouches slashed in the Florida Keys.

Florida Keys Wildlife Refuge Director Maya Totman said Friday that 10 pelicans have been found dead.

The birds are being found with the large pouches they use to catch food almost entirely cut through. The pelicans are left unable to hunt and swallow their food, leaving them to starve to death slowly.

"With the way the cuts are done, fish slide out of the pouch and the bird can't eat. It gets weaker and weaker and dies," Totman tells The Key West Citizen.

Nancy Finley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services at the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Big Pine Key, said the cuts don't appear to be a natural occurrence.

"The cuts are deep, all the way to the windpipe," she said. "It appears to be a knife slice."

Some pelicans also have been spotted flying around with their pouches slashed, raising concerns more could die, Totman said.
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Hardhat

Bird invasion: Thousands of Galahs take over outback town in Australia


mnn.com
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:29 UTC

Thousands of distinctive pink and grey galahs have descended on the Queensland town of Boulia, seeking relief from drought. But their arrival is creating havoc for locals and the galahs have finally outstayed their welcome.
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Snowflake

Ice, snow storm hits Central and Atlantic Canada


CBC News
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:03 UTC
Icicles from Toronto ice storm
© blog.to
Toronto Hydro CEO calls situation 'highest level of emergency'; outages could last until Christmas
  • 350,000 without power in Ontario, including 250,000 in Toronto
  • Tens of thousands without power in Quebec, thousands in New Brunswick
  • Flights cancelled, delayed at airports from Toronto to St. John's
  • No streetcar service in Toronto
  • Freezing rain warning over in Toronto, but warnings stretch from Ontario to Atlantic Coast
Snow, ice pellets and freezing rain have caused extensive delays on the road and in the air in Central and Atlantic Canada, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, possibly until Christmas Day.
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Cloud Lightning

Severe and strange weather sweeps U.S., threatens holiday travelers

Jessica Ravitz and Leslie Holland
cnn.com
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 06:29 UTC
Image
Flood waters surround an area of low-lying woodlands in Paducah, Kentucky, on Saturday, December 21. Continuous rainfall that began Friday totaled 4 to 5 inches, leading to flooded roads and poor driving conditions during the last holiday shopping weekend
The weekend before Christmas, Mother Nature is gifting -- or, rather, clobbering -- the United States with a little bit of everything. Ice storms, snow, flooding, thunderstorms, tornadoes and record-setting warmth are all in store, and with this maddening mix comes a massive headache for more than 94 million expected holiday travelers.

Unless you're on the West Coast, odds are the weather outside is frightful and complex. To make sense of it all, let us take you on a national tour.

Southeast: Thunderstorms, tornadoes and torrential downpours

While ice storms and snow wreak havoc in parts of the country, the bigger story that's brewing is about rain and a severe storm event, says CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

Harsh weather continued Saturday evening, with a risk of thunderstorms in Louisiana, Mississippi, parts of Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee.

Isolated storms that form ahead of these bigger storms could become supercells, which means the possibility of tornadoes. One tornado hit Friday night in Mississippi.

By midday Saturday, there were two tornado watches in effect. Saturday night, the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi, said damage in that area -- four semi trucks overturned, five houses heavily damaged and 15 others with minor damage -- was likely due to a tornado.

Saturday night, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported one death in Coahoma County, along the Mississippi River. There were no further details.
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Snowflake Cold

The top seven global warming alarmist setbacks in 2013

Michael Bastasch
The Daily Caller
Fri, 20 Dec 2013 13:45 UTC
earth from space
© Reuters/Japan Meteorological Agency
Hold your champagne glasses high this holiday season, because the end of 2013 marks the 17th year without global warming.

This year has been trying for climate scientists and environmentalists who have been trying hard to explain away the 17-year hiatus in global warming and link "extreme weather" to rising greenhouse gas emissions - despite strong evidence to the contrary. There has been a breakdown in the manmade global warming consensus, and some even argue we are headed for an ice age.

In honor of the 17th year without global warming, The Daily Caller News Foundation has put together seven setbacks for global warming alarmism.
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Arrow Up

Is the EU tampering with historical sea levels to make it fit the AGW agenda?

Steven Goddard
Real Science
Sun, 22 Dec 2013 03:38 UTC
Cooling the past is fun, so why not lower past sea levels too?

The EU's Envisat satellite used to agree with tide gauges that there isn't a lot of sea level rise going on.
Sea levels
© CNES, ESA, LEGOS, CLS
MSL_Serie_EN_Global_IB_RWT_NoGIA_Adjust.gif (500×302)

But that just wouldn't do anything to scare people, so one night they simply quadrupled sea level rise.
Sea Level adjustment
© CNES, ESA, LEGOS, CLS
MSL_Serie_EN_Global_IB_RWT_NoGIA_Adjust.gif (500×308)
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Igloo

Ice and snow frustrate US holiday travel rush

Jason Keyser
Associated Press
Sat, 21 Dec 2013 23:05 UTC
US Weather
© AP Photo/Weather UndergroundThis is a Weather Underground forecast for Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013, for the U.S. A storm will produce showers and thunderstorms from Texas to Tennessee. Rain will be likely from the southern Plains to the Ohio Valley and portions of the Northeast. Snow will fall from the central Plains to Lower Michigan and northern New England.
Chicago - A storm with a 2,000-mile footprint frustrated Christmas travelers Saturday from Texas to Nova Scotia with a little of everything Mother Nature has to offer, from freezing rain, ice and snow to flooding, thunderstorms and even tornadoes.

Some of the millions of people who hit the roads and airports by midday Saturday squeaked through before any major weather had hit, but the cancellations and flight delays started to mount as the afternoon wore on.

Forecasters warned motorists that roads that seemed passable one minute could turn treacherous the next, as a cold blast on the storm's back end turns rain to ice and snow.

The system's strange swirl of winter and spring-like conditions produced starkly different weather at times in areas separated by a couple hundred miles. While drivers in Oklahoma and eastern Missouri were navigating ice-slicked streets Saturday, residents in Memphis, Tenn., were strolling around in T-shirts in spring-like temperatures in the mid-60s.
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