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Attention

Storms cause widespread power failure across Pakistan: protests against outages turn violent


Press TV
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:30 UTC
Image
© File photoActivists of Pakistan Muslim League (N) demonstrate during a rally in Rawalpindi
Prolonged and widespread power outage in most of Pakistan's cities during scorching summer heat has triggered violent protests in most areas of the country. Coupled with hot and humid summer weather, the prolonged blackout has forced outraged citizens to take to the streets to protest the tough living conditions. The protests turned violent as some of the angry protesters reportedly attacked offices of the power supply department in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, damaging official and private properties.

Offices of Pepco, the Pakistan Electric Power Company, were also attacked in Islamabad, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Okara, Multan, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, and Sheikhupura and many of them were reportedly set ablaze. No loss of life was reported, but the roads were blocked till late night. Reports indicate that in some areas people face 12 to 14 hours of rolling blackouts, while the rural residents suffer up to 18 hours of power outage.
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Arrow Up

Europe wrestles with searing high temperatures


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:23 UTC
Finland - The mercury rose to over 30 degrees Celsius for the first time this summer in eastern Finland as meteorologists warned of severe thunderstorms later in the day. The temperature exceeded the 30-degree mark in Tohmajärvi, Lieksa and Juuka in North Karelia, close to the Russian border. But the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) says that a cooler weather front has already arrived in western Finland and will start moving eastwards soon, making the current heatwave quite short-lived.

Severe thunderstorms are expected to whip up very strong wind gusts on Monday, warns the FMI. Winds may reach speeds of 25 meters per second in North Ostrobothnia and western Finland, and elsewhere in the country gusts of some 15 m/s are expected. Additionally, heavy rainfall is forecast for various parts of Finland on Monday. Thunderstorms left thousands without electricity in different parts of Finland on Sunday. Most of them had been fixed by Monday afternoon. At 1pm, some 200 Fortum customers were still without power. Elenia (formerly known as Vattenfall) had about 1,200 customers without service at that time. -YLE
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Bizarro Earth

Severe heatwave: drought and wildfires destroy Russian harvest


The Voice of Russia
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:18 UTC
Image
© Eugene Nikitenko / RIA Novosti
Russia is currently in the grips of an extremely strong heat wave. City and town residents are suffocating from the sweltering heat. For example, it is about 30 degrees in Moscow with prospects of the thermometer going up in the next few days. The heat wave situation is aggravated by wild fires producing clods of poisonous smoke. The wood rich Siberian taiga near Krasnoyarsk is fighting 83 fires on the territory of 12.130 hectares. As for rural Russia, that only last year was the world's third-biggest grain producer, it suffers colossal damages. It threats to destroy a significant part of the crops. If last year's harvest amounted to 94 million tons, this year it is a predicted at 80 to 85 million. Given the situation, earlier in July the Agriculture Ministry had to revise its harvest predictions.
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Fish

Mutant Fish with Transparent Scales Discovered at Japanese Fishery Among 300,000 Regular Opaque Fish

Steven
Rocket News 24
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:20 UTC
Ayu Fish
© Rocket News 24
The ayu, or sweetfish, is a summer delicacy in Japan. Usually coated in salt and grilled over a charcoal fire, the fish is known for its refreshingly sweet taste and is consumed widely by Japanese people every year.

While a typical specimen is similar to a small trout in appearance, an ayu with translucent scales was discovered at a fishery in Gifu prefecture late last month.

We think the issue here isn't why this happened, but how on earth were they able to spot the little guy...

The 15 centimeter see-through ayu was found among a batch of 300,000 fish. While the scales aren't completely transparent, you can still the general shape and color of the fish's innards and skeleton.

The staff at the fishery are puzzled as to why the mutation occurred, pointing out that they have not once changed cultivation methods in their 40 years of operation.
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Cloud Lightning

NASA sees Typhoon Saola's huge reach over the Philippines


EurekAlert
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:09 UTC
Typhoon Saola looks like a monster tropical cyclone in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite today, July 30. Although Saola's center is over 300 nautical miles (368 miles/592 km) south-southeast of Taiwan, it stretches over the north and central Philippines and has triggered a number of warnings throughout the country.
Image
© NASA Terra/MODIS07/30/2012, 02:15 UTC, Typhoon Saola (10W) approaching Taiwan
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Fish

Divided Dolphin Societies Merge 'For First Time'

Matt Bardo
BBC Nature
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:40 UTC
Dolphins
© Ina AnsmannTwo become one: the unification of these two socially distinct groups of bottlenose dolphin demonstrates the intelligence and social adaptability of the species.
A unique social division among a population of bottlenose dolphins in Australia's Moreton Bay has ended, according to a new study.

The dolphins lived as two distinct groups that rarely interacted, one of which foraged on trawler bycatch.

But scientists think that a ban on fishing boats from key areas has brought the two groups together.

They believe these socially flexible mammals have united to hunt for new food sources.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The Moreton Bay dolphins were thought to be the only recorded example of a single population that consisted of groups not associating with each other.

The split was dubbed "the parting of the pods".

But since the study that discovered the rift, trawlers have been banned from designated areas of the bay leading to a 50% reduction in the fishing effort.

A key area of the bay to the south, where the social split was first observed by a previous study, has been protected.
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Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica trigger floods, force evacuations

Djenane Villanueva
CNN
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:20 UTC
Image
© TeletoaFlooding in Costa Rica has forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday.
Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica have triggered floods that have forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday. Four people are missing, down from eight earlier, according to Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the local Red Cross.

The government has declared a "yellow alert" in various parts of Cartago, a central province where one person was reported dead, said Roman. The person was rescued after a landslide, but died on the way to the hospital from injuries and heart failure, he said. A yellow alert is also in effect for parts of Limon, an eastern province. More than 1,500 people have taken refuge at shelters and others are waiting to be rescued, according to the Red Cross.

"We have reports of people trapped in their houses that have been flooded by overflow from the Chirripo River, also of several communities that are isolated in other parts of Limon," said Guillermo Arroyo, director of operations of the Costa Rican Red Cross.
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Sun

Crops keep shrinking in historic drought

Sam Nelson
Reuters
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:48 UTC
Dry and hot weather in the U.S. Midwest for the next week or two will further erode crop conditions, trimming this year's corn and soybean crop production, an agricultural meteorologist forecast Monday.

"It looks like a continued trend of below-average precipitation in the Midwest for the next week to 10 days," said John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring.

Temperatures this week will warm into the upper 80s to low 90s degrees Fahrenheit, with only a few light showers in the east on Monday and some rainfall later in the week, he said.

"There are no widespread soaking rains in sight. Thursday and Friday there could be scattered showers, and by the weekend from 0.30 to 0.80 inch with coverage of about 75 to 80 percent," Dee said. "There won't be as much stress as recently, but crops will continue to deteriorate."

There were mixed signals for the weather early next week, with some weather models showing some rain but others indicating that the dryness would continue.

Comment: Here is a sample of articles we've amassed as we continue to cover food price concerns and the ongoing drought.
World in Serious Trouble on Food Front
All hell will break loose in one to two years
Worst Drought Since 1950s in Continental U.S.
Drought categories rise by 50% - in 1 week

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Cloud Lightning

Just another day in Arizona: another day; another massive dust storm

James Nye and Snejana Farberov
Daily Mail
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:02 UTC

A second cloud of yellow in less than a week overwhelmed suburban Phoenix on Sunday, mixing with torrential rains and gusty winds that wreaked havoc on midday traffic in the area. The thick wall of dust, known as a haboob, which is Arabic for 'strong wind,' was seen making its way through the town of Laveen about eight miles southwest of downtown Phoenix. The greater Phoenix area and northwest and north central Pinal County were under a dust storm warning that expired at 7pm on Sunday.

Additional photos
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Bizarro Earth

A Rare Mountain Tornado Touches Down Near Mount Evans, Colorado

Dave Aguilera
CBS Denver
Sun, 29 Jul 2012 16:22 UTC
Rare Tornado
© FacebookThe tornado near Mount Evans.
It doesn't happen very often, but Colorado had a rare mountain tornado touchdown near Mt. Evans. Saturday afternoon at 2:51 pm. Thunderstorms strengthening over the mountains west of Denver were strong enough to produce a weak, short-lived twister. The National Weather Service has analyzed pictures from the area and confirms that it was a bona fide tornado.

Typically, these types of storms can produce what are known as cold air funnels. Which are not tornadoes but do develop from cold air pooling in the upper levels of a thunderstorm. And with differing temperatures at altitude wind shear can cause a funnel-shaped cloud to drop from a thunderstorm. These funnels tend to be very weak and almost never touch the ground.

But in this situation the air entering the bottom of this Mount Evans storm was warm enough to produce a tornado touchdown. The National Weather Service is estimating this to be the second highest tornado ever recorded in the United States. The spot where the touchdown occurred to be roughly at 11,900 feet.

It is estimated that the highest recorded tornado in the U.S. happened in 2004. On July 7 of that year, at 12,000 feet a hiker took a picture of a tornado in Sequoia National Park in California.
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