Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Record Snowfall in Switzerland, 45 cm in St Moritz


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:07 UTC
Record Snowfall
© Terra Daily
Snow fell in the Swiss Alps overnight Sunday to levels unseen for the month of September, Swiss weather agency Meteosuisse reported on Monday.

In the ski resort of St Moritz, in the southeast canton of Grison, a total of 45 centimetres (nearly 18 inches) of snow was recorded on Monday morning, it said. The weather agency said the high levels of precipitation were due to a cold front which lowered the snow line to 800 metres (2,600 feet).

Rainfall was also higher than usual, with around 100 liters per square meter measured in the town of Santa Maria, also in Grison, the highest level since records began in 1901, Meteosuisse said.

The snowfall also provoked traffic disturbances in the mountains, with the St Bernard, Flueela and Nufenen passes closed, according to ViaSuisse, which reports on the condition of Swiss roads.

The Gothard, Lukmanier and Oberalp passes are also covered in snow, it added.
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Cloud Lightning

1.3 million urged to evacuate as typhoon nears Japan


MSNBC
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:34 UTC
Image
© APResidents wade through a flooded street caused by an approaching typhoon in Nagoya, Japan, on Tuesday.
Heavy rains already trigger floods; at least 2 missing, roads damaged

A major hurricane that could hit Tokyo or Kyoto overnight has already triggered floods, left two people missing and forced officials to urge 1.3 million people in central Japan to evacuate.

Typhoon Roke could make landfall closer to Kyoto Tuesday night if it moves to the west of the forecast track, Rick Knabb, The Weather Channel's tropical weather expert, told NBC News.

"If it goes right at Tokyo, landfall near there might be roughly 2-4 a.m. ET," he added. "If it goes far enough right of track, the center could miss Japan altogether, but still with significant effects there."

Public broadcaster NHK said about 1.3 million people have been advised to leave their homes due to rising rivers. In the city of Moriyama, 80,000 residents were ordered to evacuate.

Heavy rains as the storm approached caused floods and road damage in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi state government said.
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Farmers Flee as World's Deadliest Volcano Rumbles

Nasrullah Roa
The Associated Press
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/KOMPAS Images, Iwan SetiyawanIn this Oct. 19, 2010 aerial photo, Mount Tambora's 10 kilometers (more than 7 miles) wide and 1 kilometer (half a mile) deep volcanic crater, created by the April 1815 eruption, is shown. Bold farmers routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanos in Indonesia, but those on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month, Sept., 2011.
Bold farmers in Indonesia routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanoes, but those living on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month.

Villagers like Hasanuddin Sanusi have heard since they were young how the mountain they call home once blew apart in the largest eruption ever recorded - an 1815 event widely forgotten outside their region - killing 90,000 people and blackening skies on the other side of the globe.

So, the 45-year-old farmer didn't wait to hear what experts had to say when Mount Tambora started being rocked by a steady stream of quakes. He grabbed his wife and four young children, packed his belongings and raced down its quivering slopes.

"It was like a horror story, growing up," said Hasanuddin, who joined hundreds of others in refusing to return to their mountainside villages for several days despite assurances they were safe. A dragon sleeping inside the crater, that's what we thought. If we made him angry - were disrespectful to nature, say - he'd wake up spitting flames, destroying all of mankind."
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Snowman

Summer snow cripples Austria

Luboš Motl
The Reference Frame
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:15 UTC
Image
Two Austrian citizens relax at the snow-covered pastures above the Furggels Valley.
While global warming is threatening the life of our planet if not the Milky Way, Austria woke up to something that mavericks like to enjoy at the end of the summer: snow.

It's been pretty intense and some ski resorts (which were predicted not to see any snow again a few years ago) received as much as 50 centimeters of new snow. In the summer.

An unexpected summer snowstorm has covered pretty much all places of Tyrol that are above 700 meters above the sea level, including its capital Innsbruck which is just 574 meters above the sea level. Many children were made happy; many drivers were made unhappy. Children who like to drive had mixed feelings.

Much like all interesting and uninteresting weather events on Earth and beyond, this fun was brought to you by man-made global warming that was caused by CO2 emissions from industrial companies and viewers like you. Thank you. ;-)
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Cloud Lightning

Snow dumps in Europe... in September


skiclub.co.uk
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:10 UTC
Image
Filzmoos, Austria, 1000m, 19 September
Up to 40cm fell in Austrian resorts this weekend, bringing a snowy start to the winter season

With Hintertux reporting 40cm of fresh snow over the weekend and the Molltal Glacier in Austria reporting a further 50cm, it looks as though winter is well and truly on its way to the Alps.

For the latest snow conditions check out the Ski Club's Snow reports.

To take a look for yourself visit the Ski Club's webcam pages.

The view on the ground on Monday 19th September:
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Snowman

Britain to be hit by SNOW in October... forecasters warn an early winter is on its way

Jessica Satherley
UK Daily Mail
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:03 UTC
Image
© Xposurephotos.comThe big freeze: Snow is expected to hit Britain as soon as next month, forecasters have warned (snow in south London pictured last December)
Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned.

Temperatures over the next three months will plummet to below average with one long-range forecaster predicting snowfalls in October.

James Madden, of Exacta Weather, said: 'I expect to see the first signs of some moderate to heavy snowfalls as early as October or November in certain parts of the UK.

'I expect December, January and February to experience below-average temperatures, with the heaviest snowfall occurring within the time frame of November to January across many parts of the UK.
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Bizarro Earth

US: South Florida Invaded by Giant Snails


msnbc.com
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:22 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Florida is used to strange creatures, but the discovery of a non-native animal - a giant snail from East Africa - has got local officials really worried.

A search-and-destroy advisory that went out included this bit of history: the last time the giant snails were found in Florida (back in 1966) they had multiplied from three to 18,000 in seven years and cost $1 million to eradicate.

The new population of giant African land snails was found in Miami-Dade County, and several dozen technicians were quickly dispatched to search them out.

About 1,000 were found Thursday within a one-square-mile radius, the Miami Herald reported. Several hundred were found in one backyard in Coral Gables. How they got there was not immediately known.

The snails were sent to freezers to be frozen to death.

Why worry? Besides their intimidating size - up to 8 inches long and 4 inches in diameter - "they consume at least 500 different types of plants, can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco, and can carry a parasitic nematode that can lead to meningitis in humans," the Florida Department of Agriculture said in a statement Thursday.
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Bizarro Earth

India: Sikkim quake unusual, say geologists


The Assam Tribune
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:39 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Bangalore -- The earthquake that rocked Sikkim Sunday is unusual in terms of its magnitude and nature of origin, say leading geologists.

"There is nothing surprising in this earthquake as the region north of Sikkim, which forms the outliers of Tibetan tectonics, is known for moderate earthquakes in the past," C.P. Rajendran at the Indian Institute of Science here told IANS.

But what makes it different is its "unusually greater magnitude".

These earthquakes are different in the sense they are along the somewhat north-south structures trending transverse to the east-west Himalayan axis, Rajendran said. They are different from the usual Himalayan thrust earthquakes that are caused by the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate.
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Bizarro Earth

Typhoon Roke is Forecast to Strike Japan at About 19:00 GMT on 20 September.


Alert Net
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:28 UTC
Typhoon Roke
© AlertNet
Typhoon Roke is forecast to strike Japan at about 19:00 GMT on 20 September.Data supplied by theUS Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Centersuggest that the point of landfallwill benear33.1 N,135.2 E.Roke is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around120 km/h (74 mph).Wind gusts in the area maybeconsiderably higher.

According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm ofRoke'sstrength (category 1)at landfall includes:
  • Storm surge generally 1.2-1.5 metres (4-5 feet) above normal.
  • No real damage to building structures.
  • Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery, and trees.
  • Some damage to poorly constructed signs.
  • Some coastal road flooding and minor pier damage.
There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
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Igloo

Go Figure! Times Atlas is 'wrong on Greenland climate change'

John Vidal
The Guardian UK
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:03 UTC
Glaciologists say the ice cover is melting - but at nowhere near the 'misleading' 15% rate represented by cartographers

Map of Greenland
© Times Comprehensive Atlas of the WorldThe Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World shows Greenland has lost around 15% of its ice cover between the 1999 10th edition (left) and 2011 13th edition.
Leading scientists have accused the world's top cartographers of making a blunder in their representation of the effects of climate change in Greenland, prompting a robust defence by the map-makers' publisher.

Maps in the 13th edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, published last week, show large areas of the eastern and southern coasts of Greenland coloured brown and pink, and the permanent ice cap now covering a significantly smaller area than it did in the 1999 12th edition of the atlas. The atlas shows that 300,000 sq km, or 15%, of Greenland's ice cover had been lost in the period.

"This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet forever - and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate," said the publishers of the atlas, HarperCollins in information given to the media last week and reiterated by a spokeswoman on Monday.
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