Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Landslide in Alaska May Be the Largest Recorded in North America

Deborah Byrd
EarthSky
Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© National Park ServiceGlacier Bay National Park is located in the southeastern Alaska wilderness. It can be reached via a short flight from Juneau, Alaska.
Landslides occur in all 50 U.S. states and territories, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Appalachian Mountains, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coastal Ranges and some parts of Alaska and Hawaii have severe landslide problems. AP had a great story yesterday about a massive rock slide in Glacier Bay National Park earlier this summer. The event took place on June 11, 2012, but no one noticed it until a pilot happened to fly past the area a month later. According to AP's story, some are now saying this landslide - which sent rock and ice pouring down a valley, over the top of a glacier - might be the largest ever recorded in North America.
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Cloud Lightning

Freak wave of tornadoes carve trail of destruction through northern Poland, leaving 1 dead

Rob Strybel
Reuters
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 08:02 UTC
Polish Tornado Damage_1
© TVN24
A freak wave of tornadoes ripped through northern Poland on Sunday, wrecking houses and swathes of forest and leaving one person dead and another 10 injured.Tornadoes are not unknown in the European Union's largest eastern country but the scope and power of Sunday's twisters was unusual and comes in a summer already marked by flash floods, hailstorms and gales.

Some 1,200 rescuers were working to remove fallen trees, unblock roads and restore utilities in the hardest hit Baltic region of Pomerania.Trees were uprooted, buildings damaged and power lines downed, while some 550 hectares of woodlands in the Tuchola Forest area were flattened.

"I saw a black column coming our way," an injured inhabitant of the Wycinki village, whose farm was destroyed by the tornado told state television. "It carried everything away with it ... birds, debris, sucked up water from the lake."
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Cloud Lightning

Flashy Storm Slashes Area, Turns Night into Day Over Tri-Cities, Washington

Kristin M. Kraemer
Tri-City Herald
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:10 UTC
Lightning Storm
© Cisco WilkinsonCisco Wilkinson of west Pasco took this photo at 4 a.m. Saturday. “It was so bright, I was temporarily blinded,” Wilkinson said. “It looks like it’s daytime.”
There were a lot of tired people in the Tri-Cities on Saturday after an early morning electrical storm rattled homes and flashed bright lights through windows.

The system that led to a severe thunderstorm warning from the National Weather Service also cooled down the Mid-Columbia after a string of 100-plus degree days.

The light show and downpour didn't appear to cause any significant damage, with police and fire officials surprised at how few calls were received.

However, it might not be over, with the forecast calling for a slight chance of thunderstorms through the rest of the week as the temperatures heat up again.

Those storms continue to bring the threat of lightning sparking wildfires.

Today's thermometer should top out around 87 degrees before moving into breezy conditions for the evening, said Rob Brooks, a hydrometeorological technician with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.
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Cloud Lightning

Stormageddon: 5,000 cutoff by landslides in Japan as death toll rises to 22

Shingo Ito
AAP
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:33 UTC
Troops are airlifting supplies to thousands of people cut off by landslides and torrential downpours that have killed at least 24 in southwest Japan as meteorologists warned of further heavy rain. Television footage on Sunday showed soldiers loading food, water and medical supplies onto military helicopters to send them to mountainous areas in Fukuoka prefecture on Kyushu island.

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Attention

China, Japan hit by torrential rains


Moscow Time
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 05:25 UTC
China Japan floods
© EPA
Scores of people were killed in flash floods caused by torrential rains in western China earlier this week, officials said on Sunday, adding that more than two million people were affected by the disaster.
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Cloud Lightning

Twisters in Poland kill one, hurt nine


RIA
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 04:46 UTC
tornado
© Flickr.com/chascar/cc-by
One person died and nine were injured when hurricanes and tornadoes ripped through northern Poland on Saturday, local media report.

Hailstorms and hurricanes have been raging in various parts of the country for more than week now. The authorities are estimating the damage.

Comment: Tornado in Poland 14 July 2012:



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Arrow Down

Colorado sinkhole closes highway, continues to grow

Blair Shiff
9News.com
Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:31 UTC
Image
© Andy Cross, The Denver PostColorado Department of Transportation project engineers, Joe Elsen, fourth from left, and Matt Figgs, far right, offer hikers from left to right, Marlowe Kent, Lauren Jerd, and Shane O'Donnell, a safe, private look at large sinkhole Friday morning, July 13th, 2012 that opened up on highway 24 at mile marker 165, between Red Cliff and Leadville Colorado on Monday.
Leadville -The sinkhole on the edge of Highway 24 near Leadville is still growing.

The hole leads down to an old railroad tunnel, which is causing concerns that the highway above the tunnel could fall into the hole.

A section of the highway near the top of Tennessee Pass is closed indefinitely because of the hole.

"Closing a highway is absolutely something we hate to do. We want to keep it open. So we are working very hard to come up with a plan to get it open," Stacy Stegman of the Colorado Department of Transportation said.

CDOT has rerouted traffic to Colorado 91 and Interstate 70. These detours could add time to driver's commute.
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Umbrella

Extreme weather: Drought turns to floods as Houston goes under water

Jason Samenow
Washington Post
Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:24 UTC
Image
© US National Weather ServiceFour-day rainfall in Houston
Since Tuesday, 5-15" of rain has fallen around Houston producing many instances of flooding.

Heavy rain is drenching the water-plagued area now, and a flash flood warning is in effect through 2:45 p.m. local time.

Writes the SciGuy Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle:
There has already been substantial street flooding in downtown, where three inches of rain have fallen during the last three hours.
It's strange to be talking about flooding in Houston after last summer's historic drought there. Since Tuesday, much of the area has picked up more rain than it did all of last summer.

The Chronicle's Berger pronounced Houston's drought over on Wednesday.
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Cloud Lightning

April 2012 saw record number of tornadoes in Oklahoma

Bryan Painter
News OK
Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:18 UTC
Image
© @woodwardnews on TwitpicTornado strikes Woodward, Oklahoma on 15 April , leaving five people dead.
Timing rather than a trend seems to be the key as to why Oklahoma has broken the state record for tornadoes in the month of April the past two years, according to weather officials.

In April 2011, there were 50 confirmed tornadoes in Oklahoma, breaking a record for that month previously set with 40 in 1957. This April, there were 52 tornadoes in the state. So do those 102 in two years mean April bypasses May as the month for the biggest threat of twisters in Oklahoma?

No, say the experts as they look over the official state records for tornadoes that date to 1950.

Gary McManus, of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, said that to see if there is a change in our primary tornado season, you really have to look at the changes in the ingredients that form tornadoes. The weather patterns that have to come together are complex.
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Extinguisher

Wildfire threatens dozens of homes in Northern California


MSNBC
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:30 UTC
A wildfire burning in a steep canyon between the towns of Colfax and Foresthill in Placer County, Calif., destroyed one home, threatened 170 more and injured nine firefighters, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing fire officials.

Cal[ifornia] Fire officials said Saturday that the Robbers Fire has burned 1,950 acres since igniting Wednesday afternoon, and was 20 percent contained. More than 1,900 firefighters are fighting the fire.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday called in more firefighters and the California National Guard to help battle the fire.

Officials said they fire had moved into a rural subdivision Saturday evening known as Brushy Canyon, and three strike teams were being deployed to protect homes in the area, NBC station KCRA reported.

The area is in Placer County, west of Lake Tahoe.

Ken Pimlott, the state fire director, said a two-year reprieve from wildfires in the region appears to be over.

"The exceptionally dry winter has set the stage for a more active fire season this year, and we're seeing fire activity now that we would typically not see until late August," he said in a statement.

This article includes reporting by NBC station KCRA of Sacramento and The Associated Press.
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