Earth ChangesS


Igloo

160 die as Eastern Europe sinks further into deep freeze

A cold snap kept Europe in its icy grip on Thursday, pushing the death toll to 160 as countries from Italy to Ukraine struggled to cope with temperatures that plunged to record lows in some places.

Nine more people died in Poland overnight as temperatures hit minus 32 Celsius (minus 25.6 Fahrenheit) in the southwest, bringing the overall toll to 29 since the deep freeze began last week, national police said.
Image
© AFP, Sasa DjordjevicA man walks along a snow covered street in the southeastern Serbian town of Medvedja
In Ukraine, tens of thousands of people have headed to shelters trying to escape the freeze that the emergencies ministry said has now killed 63 people.

Most of them literally froze to death on the street, with only a handful making it to hospital before succumbing to hypothermia, the ministry said.

Shivering and hungry, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have sought help in the more than 2,000 temporary shelters set up by the authorities to help the poor survive the fearsome spell of cold weather.

The shelters offer warmth and hot food in a country where temperatures fell to minus 33 degrees Celsius in the Carpathians in the west of the country and minus 27 in the capital Kiev.

Igloo

Isolated winter: Western Canada struggling with record snow-fall as rest of country goes dry

Image
© Unknown
Snowfall and snow levels are reaching record levels in Alberta and British Columbia in Western Canada. While many other parts of North America are still struggling to fully open all their lifts and runs for winter2011-12 during an unusually dry winter, the West of Canada has been deluged fairly consistently since last autumn. "This month goes down as one of the snowiest January's on record. There is unbelievable snow conditions at both Fernie and Kicking Horse with total snowfall at both over 19 feet now. Today alone, Fernie has seen over a foot overnight!!" said an excited Matt Mosteller of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies which runs the two centres.

Meanwhile a little to the east and north, over the border in Alberta, with over three months left to go in the ski season, Marmot Basin near Jasper has already received over 12 feet (372 cm) of snowfall which is 93% of its annual average. If the next three months produce even typical amounts of snowfall, Marmot Basin will exceed its all time snowfall record of 529 cm set way back in 1965.

Igloo

Prefecture of Japan pleads for help after being hit with record snow-fall

The prefecture of Niigata, Japan, has asked for a dispatch of troops to help in the wake of record-setting snowfalls, according to reports on Wednesday. 3 people have died in the northern part of Japan from avalanches in Akita. The Ground Self-Defense Force of Japan was expected to send troops to the town of Uonuma, where a snow depth of 4.09 meters, or 13.4 feet, has reportedly built up. Fearing roof collapse under the weight of the deep snow, complicated by warming and the potential for rain, the local officials called for the troops to help clear roofs. Niigata is in western Honshu, which winter climate is notorious for its waves of heavy snow off the Sea of Japan during cold outbreaks.
Image
© Unknown

Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu: Earthquake Magnitude 7.1 - West of Efate

Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, February 02, 2012 at 13:34:38 UTC

Friday, February 03, 2012 at 12:34:38 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
17.810°S, 167.149°E

Depth:
10.1 km (6.3 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
124 km (77 miles) W of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

251 km (155 miles) S of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

294 km (182 miles) NW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

1803 km (1120 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Nuke

US: San Onofre Nuclear Plant Closed After Radiation Leak

San Onofre Nuke plant
© Lenny Ignelzi/AP Photo
A small quantity of radioactive gas leaked inside one of the buildings at San Onofre nuclear power plant north of San Diego, according to a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The spokesman said the radiation levels were "barely measurable," but the plant was shut down as a precaution.

"At no point were the public or our workers in any danger," Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander told ABC News.

Officials say the radiation leak likely occurred in the steam generator tubes of San Onofre's reactor #3. The steam system, which is supposed to be shielded from exposure to radiation, was replaced in December 2010. Alexander said plant officials will be conducting an investigation into why the new steam tubes leaked.

Gary Headrick is part of the environmental group San Clemente Green and lives just eight miles away from San Onofre.

Attention

US: Researchers Discover Gulf Dead Zone Much Larger Than Previously Thought

Gulf Dead Zone
© WWLTV Eyewitness News

New Orleans-- For years now, scientists have been monitoring the development of a massive dead zone off the coast of south Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, new research is showing the presence of another underwater area lacking oxygen and life -- this time in the Chandeleur Sound, east of St. Bernard Parish.

Gulf waters include some of the richest areas for seafood in the country, and part of that critical habitat includes the Chandeleur Sound.

"This general area is a major path for migration of fish," said Dr. John Lopez of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.

Deep below the surface, life may be struggling. The Foundation, along with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCOM), recently decided to share their findings with each other concerning the dead zone in the Chandeleur Sound.

What they discovered was that the dead zone is four times larger than they initially thought. It covers more than a 1,000 square miles, stretching from the Chandeleur Islands, east to the Florida Panhandle and possibly beyond.

Info

Weather Forecasters Get it All Wrong: Western Winter Surprisingly Dry and Warm

The chief climatologist for Environment Canada admits he has egg on his face.

Dave Phillips predicted last fall that Western Canada would have a colder than normal winter, but it's been the exact opposite.

It's the second- or third-warmest winter on record for some of the prairie provinces.

"We sometimes don't get it right. It's not something that's perfect," said Phillips. "Maybe nature sneers at these forecasts and gives us the opposite."

But he's not alone: most forecasters across Canada and the United States got it wrong.

The Weather Network suggested a roller-coaster winter with major storms for the West. AccuWeather also forecast parts of North America would be hit with the worst winter in 20 years.

Igloo

Stunning Photo Shows Growing Antarctic Ice Rift

Ice Shelf
© NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. A growing rift in the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf.

A massive crack in a huge sheet of Antarctic ice discovered in mid-October last year is steadily growing, as seen in recently released satellite images.

The fissure in the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf marks the beginning stages of the birth of a 350-square-mile (900 square kilometers) iceberg, part of a natural process known as calving.

The image was snapped on Nov. 13, 2011, when the rift was roughly 19 miles (30 km) long, 260 feet (80 meters) wide for most of its length, and 195 feet (60 m) deep. When researchers first spotted the crack in mid-October, it was roughly 18 miles (28 km) long.

The ice shelf is the floating end of the Pine Island Glacier, a slow-moving river of ice in West Antarctica that moves ice from the interior of the continent out to sea.

Radar

Best of the Web: Helicopters rescue Europeans stranded by snow

Belgrade, Serbia - Rescue helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and air-lifted in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept Eastern Europe in its icy grip.

The death toll from the cold rose to 79 on Wednesday and emergency crews worked overtime as temperatures sank to minus 32.5 C (minus 26.5 F) in some areas.

Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and the rare snow fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago.
Image
© AP/Efrem LukatskyA Ukrainian man, covered with plastic sheeting to form a tent for protection from the wind and cold, fishes through an ice hole on the Dnipro river outside Cherkasy, central Ukraine. The death toll from a severe cold spell in Eastern Europe rose to 71 Wednesday Feb. 1 2012.
In central Serbia, choppers pulled out 12 people, including nine who went to a funeral but then could not get back over icy, snow-choked roads. Two more people froze to death in the snow and two others are missing, bringing that nation's death toll to five.

"The situation is dramatic, the snow is up to five meters (16 1/2 feet) high in some areas, you can only see rooftops," said Dr. Milorad Dramacanin, who participated in the helicopter evacuations.

Bizarro Earth

US: Alaska volcano lava dome forms, alert level raised

Anchorage - The warning level for a remote Alaska volcano has been raised after a new lava dome began forming, indicating the mountain could explode and send up an ash cloud that could threaten aircraft.
Image
© NASA/Getty ImagesThe eruption of the Cleveland Volcano is seen as photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station May 23, 2009 in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Tuesday elevated the alert status for Cleveland Volcano.

Officials say the new lava dome was spotted in the summit crater. The observatory says as of Monday, the dome was about 130 feet in diameter.

There have been no eruptions since Dec. 25 and Dec. 29, which destroyed the earlier lava dome built up over the fall.

Cleveland is a 5,675-foot peak on an uninhabited island 940 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Authorities say sudden eruptions could occur at any time, and ash clouds 20,000 feet above sea level are possible.