Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

U.S. Northeast digs out from blizzard; new storm brews in Plains


Reuters
Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
time square snow clearing
© REUTERS/Eric ThayerWorkers clear snow at Times Square in New York, February 9, 2013. A blizzard pummeled the Northeastern United States, killing at least one person, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and disrupting thousands of flights, media and officials said.
The U.S. Northeast started digging itself out on Sunday after a blizzard dumped up to 40 inches (1 meter) of snow with hurricane force winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

New York City trucks plowed through residential streets, leaving hundreds, if not thousands, of motorists to dig their buried vehicles out from mountains of snow.

"I give up," Giovanni Marchenna, 52, of Manhattan said with a laugh.

"Looks like I'll be taking the subway to work until the snow melts," he added, noting he spent more than an hour shoveling snow.

Utility companies reported that some 350,000 customers were still without electricity across nine states after the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines. About 700,000 homes and businesses were without power at one point on Saturday.

Air traffic began to return to normal on Sunday after some 5,800 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight tracking service.

Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and New York state's Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning. Both had been closed on Saturday.
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Radar

8 injured, houses damaged in southwest Colombia earthquake

Adriaan Alsema
Colombia Reports
Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© ElTiempo
Contrary to a statement by President Juan Manuel Santos, eight people have been injured and more than a 100 houses have been damaged in an M7.0 earthquake that hit Colombia Saturday morning.

According to the country's disaster management unit, six people were injured in the El Charco municipality in Nariño, the department where the earthquake took place.

Additionally, the unit's director, Carlos Marquez, said that 143 houses were damaged.

The damages were reported as far as cities as Bogota, more than 500 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, where some buildings were left without windows or cracks appeared in walls.

Shortly before the official report on injuries and damages, Santos claimed there had been no injuries and the material damage was "marginal."

The earthquake was felt in neighboring countries like Ecuador and Peru.

The strong earthquake is the second in the region in half a year; in September last year, a M7.3 earthquake shook the city of Popayan.
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Snowflake

Blizzard hammers U.S. Northeast, five dead, 700,000 lose power

Tim McLaughlin and Edith Honan
Reuters
Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:00 UTC
Blizzard
© Reuters/Carlo AllegriPeople arrive with their children and toboggans to a snowy Central Park in New York February 9, 2013. A blizzard packing hurricane-force winds pummeled the northeastern United States on Saturday, killing at least one person, leaving about 600,000 customers without power and disrupting thousands of flights.
A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States on Saturday, cutting power to 700,000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least five people dead.

The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic dumped more than 3 feet of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.

Coastal blizzard and flood warnings were in effect, but Massachusetts and Connecticut lifted vehicle travel bans as the storm slowly moved eastward on Saturday afternoon.

Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates reaching 6 inches an hour.

"Even the plows are getting stuck," Harkins told local WTNH television.

The storm centered its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the highest snowfall total, 38 inches, in Milford, Connecticut.
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Dollar

Food prices at risk of spiking in 2013, U.S. drought may play a part

Christopher Doering
Des Moines Register
Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:46 UTC
Image
© Press-Citizen file photo
Global food prices ended their three month slide after they stabilized in January, but the United Nations warned prices could spike in 2013 if poor weather curtails production of wheat, corn, rice and other cereals.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said the food price index, which measures monthly price changes in cereals, dairy, meat, sugar and oilseeds, was 210 in January, unchanged from the prior month. Food prices have leveled off and even declined in recent months after climbing during much of 2012 following concern that drought plaguing the United States and other parts of the world could spark a food crisis.

"Given the tight supply situation, weather remains an important determinant of prices," said FAO Senior Grains Economist Abdolreza Abbassian. "For several cereals, production needs to increase significantly this year in order to avoid unexpected price surges."
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Arrow Down

What's killing Minnesota's moose?

Maddie Oatman
Mother Jones
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:31 UTC
Image
© tipkodi/Flickr
Minnesota's iconic moose are in such bad shape that the state called off the 2013 hunting season on Wednesday. The heartiest herd, located in the northeastern region of the state, is down to around 2,700 animals, a 35 percent drop from last year and a startling 65 percent drop since 2008. Though the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources canceled hunting season, it stressed that hunters are not to blame for this worrisome news. "The state's moose population has been in decline for years but never at the precipitous rate documented this winter," said MDNR commissioner Tom Landwehr. "It reaffirms the conservation community's need to better understand why this iconic species of the north is disappearing."

Though the sharp decline has state officials somewhat baffled, many members of the conservation community feel climate change is at fault. Doug Inkley, senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, put it this way: "With the high temperatures in the summer, moose seek out shelter rather than feeding. Nutritional status declines, and they become more vulnerable to disease and parasites. It's like a person who smokes is much more vulnerable to other diseases, and that can be associated with mortality."
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.9 - NNE of Yacuanquer, Colombia


US Geological Survey
Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:04 UTC
Columbia Quake_090213
© USGS
Event Time
2013-02-09 14:16:09 UTC
2013-02-09 09:16:09 UTC-05:00 at epicenter

Location
1.167°N 77.384°W depth=153.8km (95.6mi)

Nearby Cities
5km (3mi) NNE of Yacuanquer, Colombia
12km (7mi) WSW of Pasto, Colombia
17km (11mi) SE of Sandona, Colombia
27km (17mi) ENE of Tuquerres, Colombia
199km (124mi) NE of Quito, Ecuador

Technical Details
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Question

International Space Station photograph captures giant 'underwater' wave spread over hundreds of miles in the Caribbean Sea

John Hall
The Independent
Sat, 09 Feb 2013 05:46 UTC
Image
© Earth Observatory, ISS
A stunning new image taken from the International Space Station shows a huge 'underwater' wave moving through the Caribbean.

The giant wave, believed to be hundreds of miles in width, was captured by a photographer on board the space station and appears particularly visually clear thanks to a beam of sunlight being reflected back to the camera at the exact moment the photo was taken.

The image, captured on January 18, shows a so-called 'internal wave' just to the north of the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

Internal waves are created by different water densities moving over ocean features such as underwater mountains or continental shelves.

The features create internal waves which can grow up to 100 metres in height and span hundreds of miles in width.

They have been reported to affect submarines, oil rigs, underwater cables and even passing aircraft, which can suffer drops in altitude. It is also believed that they have an impact on the planet's climate.
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Arrow Down

Sinkhole causes partial building collapse in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Sari Heidenreich
abc27.com
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:41 UTC
Image
© abc27.com
A sinkhole opened up and caused the partial collapse of a building in Chambersburg Wednesday morning.

The sinkhole was called in just before 9 a.m. at the old Tower Bank building at 2001 Lincoln Way East in Guilford Township. The building was vacant and no one was injured.

Township Road Superintendent Frank Hobbs said the sinkhole occurred on private property but is within 75 feet of Lincoln Way East, also known as Route 30, which is maintained by the state. PennDOT was called in to evaluate the situation.

Hobbs said the situation has now been handed over to Susquehanna Bank, which currently owns the building. He said the gas and electricity in the building have been shut off.
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Snowflake

Power out for thousands, evacuations expected as blizzard's impact begins to be felt

John R. Ellement, Peter Schworm, Michael Levenson and Martin Finucane
Boston Globe
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:04 UTC
Image
A National Weather Service map showing projected snowfall totals from the blizzard.
A potentially historic blizzard swept into Massachusetts today and is expected to dump more than 2 feet of snow, whip winds up to 70 miles per hour, and batter the coast with giant waves.

Roads are emptying out now as drivers heed an order issued by Governor Deval Patrick that all vehicles be parked by 4 p.m. Sideways-blowing snow is adding to the falling darkness.

More than 5,000 power outages have already been reported as winds down tree limbs and wires.

In Marshfield, officials said they expected to ask shorefront residents to evacuate themselves because of concerns about storm-driven tides tonight and Saturday morning.
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Bug

Think Nemo's bad? In Brazil it's raining spiders

Neetzan Zimmerman
Gawker
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:30 UTC
Raining Spiders
© YouTube/Gawker
What's that? You're worried about a little snow falling on your head? How adorable.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, it's raining spiders.

Footage posted online yesterday shows thousands of spiders "falling from the sky" in the southern Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina.

"Still do not know what causes such behavior," writes the video's uploader. "We are researching and will post the answer to the question here."

I know exactly what causes such behavior. A little something called the end of the world.
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