Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

US: Heavy Rains Soak Eastern Philadelphia, Strand Motorists


LDNews
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:10 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Philadelphia - Heavy rains soaked eastern on Friday, washing out numerous roads as well as a fireworks display and a minor league baseball game.

The National Weather Service warned of flash floods in Philadelphia and its suburbs for several hours following torrential midday downpours. The storm flooded streets and stranded motorists in Delaware County, where lightning split a large tree in Ridley Township, WPVI-TV reported.

Two inches of rain fell within an hour during the late afternoon in Bechtelsville, according to the weather service.

A weekly fireworks show in New Hope was postponed because of the weather, as was the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game against the Buffalo Bison.

The rain delayed the start of the Philadelphia Phillies game against the Atlanta Braves by nearly two hours.

PECO reported scattered power outages in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

In northeastern Pennsylvania, reports from western Wayne County indicated flooding west of Honesdale near campsites. The weather service said up to 5 inches of rain may have fallen since early Friday afternoon.

Some communities in Monroe County were still cleaning up from a strong storm Thursday that downed trees and left more than 10,000 people without power.

Most customers had their electricity restored by Friday, the Pocono Record reported.
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Bizarro Earth

Quake jolts northeast Japan, nuclear workers evacuated

Kevin Krolick
Reuters
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:48 UTC
Tokyo - A strong earthquake jolted northeastern Japan on Sunday, triggering an evacuation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant but there was no sign of further damage at the facility or reports of casualties along the coast.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued, and then lifted, a tsunami alert after the 7.1 magnitude quake which hit the same area that was devastated by a massive quake and tsunami on March 11. Officials said a 10 cm wave had been recorded.

"The shaking lasted rather long and became gradually stronger," an official at Iwaki City, Fukushima told national broadcaster NHK. "I saw a book shelf shaking but nothing fell off. We are advising people not to go near the coast."

At least 21,000 people were killed or went missing during the March disaster, which also cut power to the Fukushima nuclear plant and triggered a radiation crisis.
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Cloud Lightning

Calvin Expected To Weaken Over The Weekend

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:07 UTC
Hurricane Calvin 2011
© UnknownCalvin has become the third hurricane of 2011
Hurricane Calvin, the third hurricane of the 2011 eastern Pacific hurricane season, continued to pick up strength as it neared the west coast of Mexico late on Friday.

At 4 p.m. GMT, Calvin's maximum sustained winds had already grown to 70 mph, just 4 mph under hurricane strength. By 9.30 p.m maximum sustained winds had reached 75 mph (120 kph).

The National Hurricane Centre confirmed at 9 p.m. GMT that Calvin had achieved the minimum strength to be classified a Category One hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. However, the system is expected to weaken during Saturday. Calvin is then forecast to weaken further as it passes over slightly cooler water and dissipate to a remnant low on Monday, July 11, 2011.

The centre of Hurricane Calvin is located about 210 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, and is moving toward the west near 14 mph.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Lake Hauto, Pennsylvania storm uproots trees, knocks out power

Jim Dino
The Republican Herald
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:58 UTC
Lake Hauto storm
© Eric Conover/Staff Photo Crews work to restore power Friday on Route 54 near Lake Hauto. The storm knocked out power to more than 700 PPL customers.
Ermano Agosti described the storm as sounding "like a train" blasting through his Lake Hauto neighborhood Thursday night.

The wind uprooted trees with root bags 6 feet tall - some of which landed on homes and power lines - cut a path about 50 feet wide into a wooded area, and knocked out electricity that won't be completely restored until late this afternoon.

The storm brought heavy winds and hail into the lake development, which straddles the Schuylkill-Carbon County border and is partially in Rush Township and partially in Nesquehoning, but injured no one.

While the storm had characteristics of a tornado, it likely would not be designated as one, according to Pete Young, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in State College.

"We didn't get any indications of a tornado on the radar last night, or any indications from people there this morning," he said. "It was probably a strong line, what we call a downburst. There was severe, localized damage, and winds probably were between 60 and 80 mph, considering the way the trees were damaged."

While most residents in the development have electric service restored, some don't.

Paul Canevari, a spokesman for PPL, said crews will be working into today, as they did Thursday into Friday, to get all customers back on line.

"The outage affected 700 customers," he said. "We have restored approximately 530 customers as of 2 p.m. (Friday). The remaining 170 will be restored by 5 p.m. (today)."

On Friday, trees were either uprooted or split along nearly every street in the development. The scene looked like a log-cutting contest, with sawdust and the sound of chain saws everywhere.
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Cloud Lightning

US: More on the Haboob dust storm that covered Phoenix, Arizona

Jonathan DuHamel
Tuscon Citizen
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:46 UTC
Arizona Haboob
© NWS
The National Weather Service and AccuWeather both have post-mortems on the massive dust storm that swallowed Phoenix on July 5, 2011.

AccuWeather says, "The dust storm was estimated to reach a peak height of at least 5,000 to 6,000 (about a mile) with an aerial coverage on the leading edge stretching nearly 100 miles, according to the National Weather Service. The storm traveled at least 150 miles, much farther than the average 25 to 50 miles that dust storms typically travel." (See report and videos here. and another report and videos here.)

The National Weather Service provides a report and charts here. Some excerpts:
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists monitor Iceland's Katla volcano amid flooding


The Washington Post
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:39 UTC
Katla Volcano
© UnkownKatla Volcano
Scientists are monitoring Iceland's Katla volcano amid signs that a small eruption may be taking place.

The acting head of the Civil Protection Agency Iris Marelsdottir, says flooding is taking place near the volcano, caused by the melting of its ice cap.

But she says the flooding may have other causes - such as high geothermal heat - so it not yet clear whether there is an eruption.

Katla typically awakens every 80 years or so, and last erupted in 1918.

Iceland, in the remote North Atlantic, is a volcanic hotspot. In April 2010 ash from an eruption of its Eyjafjallajokul volcano grounded flights across Europe for days, disrupting travel for 10 million people.

Katla sits beside Eyjafjallajokul.

Source: The Associated Press
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Bizarro Earth

Inuit People Observe Changes in Weather, Sun, and Star Patterns


YouTube
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:31 UTC
If anyone can observe the changes to our world, it is the Aboriginal peoples of this planet.

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Igloo

Flashback SOTT Focus: Freak Arctic Weather Precursor to the Coming Ice Age?

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Fri, 07 May 2010 13:37 UTC
As regular readers of SOTT are aware, we collect weather reports from around the world which often point to weird weather occurring in locations experiencing unseasonable weather. This week there has been an especially weird spike in reports of sudden cold and snow affecting many areas of North America and Europe! We think this dramatically illustrates the alarming speed with which the weather can change from stable, warm and dry conditions to turbulent, cold and wet conditions. Global news networks are churning out endless reports on the UK election, the financial shockwaves hitting Europe and the Times Square hysteria over some fireworks left in a car. What is not being reported prominently are the unprecedented freak weather events happening around across the northern hemisphere: hail, sleet and snow slamming southern California, deluges devastating the central cities of Nashville in the US and Hunan in China, the Korean Peninsula shivering with a record-low spring chill and reports of snow in Mexico and France.

Are these just unseasonal conditions, an immediate knock-on effect from the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland perhaps? Or are we on the brink of entering an ice age as SOTT has been predicting for a number of years? Was the sudden flip this week - "as though a switch had been thrown" - a taster of the Ice Age to come? Is this 'mini Winter rebound' pointing out how suddenly glacial rebound can develop? When will we approach the tipping point as more volcanoes erupt and magma comes up from the ocean floor? Laura Knight-Jadczyk explains the mechanism that can precipitate sudden climate change towards an Ice Age:

That's the hard science. There's going to be the day. It's already happening. The magnetic field is degenerating. That means magma is going to start welling up under the oceans. It's already happening because it's heating the oceans up.

When the oceans start heating up, that means more evaporation. When that happens at the same time that the planet is being clouded by volcanic eruptions, which is cooling the atmosphere, you have precipitation that comes down as snow.

The geological record shows that the onset of every ice-age was so sudden as to be unbelievable. In other words, next winter could be the winter when a lot of undersea volcanoes begin to erupt and dump magma into the oceans. A lot of evaporation takes place.

If it happens in the winter time that means that snow can fall in amounts that are beyond your wildest imagining. It's happened! It's geologically a fact. It's happened repeatedly. Can you imagine 9 stories of snow in a single day?
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Alarm Clock

Icelandic Authorities Monitor Activity At Mýrdalsjökull Glacier

Mark Dunphy
Irishweatheronline.com
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 12:00 UTC
Image
© UnknownCovering and area of over 500 square kilometres, Myrdalsjokull glacier covers the Katla active volcano.
A glacial flood or jokulhlaup in southern Iceland, most likely from the Katla volcano, badly damaged a bridge leading to the closure of a busy road on Saturday.

Iceland's Civil Protection Agency (CPA) says flooding is taking place near the volcano, most likely caused by the melting of its ice cap. However, the CPA stated that it could not rule out high geothermal heat as the cause.

RUV - The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service - reported that the flood is thought be the result of a small eruption underneath the icecap of Mýrdalsjökull, probably in the Katla crater.

Comment: For more information about Iceland's recent volcanic activity, see these Sott links:

Volcano erupts in Iceland, spurs 50 quakes

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupting

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Cloud Lightning

New Zealand - Tornado hits Kapiti Coast


3news.co.nz
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:12 UTC
A tornado has hit just north of Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast, North of Wellington.

Trees have fallen across roads and onto houses, power lines are down and a car has been blown off the road.

A person had to be rescued from their house amidst the storm this afternoon, after a tree fell on it.

Emergency services rushed the person to hospital with moderate injury levels.
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