Earth ChangesS


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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People

More than 30 million climate migrants in Asia in 2010, report finds

Fiona Harvey
The Guardian UK
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:03 UTC
Numbers of people displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters likely to increase, Asian Development Bank warns
Climate Refuges
© Akhtar Soomro/ReutersA family displaced by floods shelters under a tarp during a monsoon downpour at a makeshift camp for flood victims in the Badin district in Pakistan's Sindh province, September 2011.

More than 30 million people were displaced last year by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia, experts have warned, and the problem is only likely to grow worse as climate change exacerbates such problems.

Tens of millions more people are likely to be similarly displaced in the future by the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, floods, droughts and reduced agricultural productivity. Such people are likely to migrate in regions across Asia, and governments must start to prepare for the problems this will create, the Asian Development Bank warned.

The costs will be high - about $40bn is the likely price for adapting and putting in place protective measures, from sea walls to re-growing mangrove swamps that have been cut down, and that can help to protect against the impacts of storm surges.

Comment: The climate changes happening right now forcing many to migrate have nothing to do with "global warming" as some see it, and are more likely to do with changes in our cosmic environment.

Global Warming And The Corruption Of Science

Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!

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Bizarro Earth

US Alaska: Earthquake Magnitude 5.8 - Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands


US Geological Survey
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:08 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 08:14:15 UTC

Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 11:14:15 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
52.041°N, 171.858°W

Depth:
34.7 km (21.6 miles)

Region:
FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

Distances:
65 km (40 miles) SW of Amukta Island, Alaska

104 km (64 miles) SW of Yunaska Island, Alaska

1678 km (1042 miles) WSW of Anchorage, Alaska

2430 km (1509 miles) W of WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory, Canada
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Bizarro Earth

5.8 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Guatemala


MyFoxPhoenix.com
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:58 UTC
Image
© USGS
A 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook Guatemala Monday around 12:30pm local time -- just a half hour after a 4.8-magnitude tremor struck near the same spot, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The first quake struck at a depth of 37.9 miles (61km) just 25 miles (41km) southeast of Guatemala City.

The more powerful second quake hit at a depth of 24.5 miles (39.4km) and was located 33 miles (52km) southeast of the capital city, according to USGS data.
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Bomb

History's deadliest volcano comes back to life in Indonesia, sparking panic among villagers

Robin McDowell
The Washington Post
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:15 UTC
Indonesia Volcano
© The Washington Post
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.
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