Earth ChangesS


Snowflake Cold

Madrid's record-breaking snowstorm killed half a million trees

Cap Allon
Electroverse.net
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:39 UTC
snap
Madrid, Spain's central capital, is a city of elegant boulevards and expansive, manicured parks such as the Buen Retiro - at least it was, before the Grand Solar Minimum slapped it silly.


A slew of new all-time cold and snow records have been set across Spain this January, snowfall so substantial that people even skied the streets of Madrid:
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Attention

Over 100 gannets found dead after high tides believed to have pummelled breeding colony in New Zealand, 10-metre swells

Sharnae Hope
Stuff
Mon, 25 Jan 2021 14:24 UTC
A Kāwhia local reported that 134 dead birds had washed ashore on the coastline, and most of them were juveniles.
A Kāwhia local reported that 134 dead birds had washed ashore on the coastline, and most of them were juveniles.
More than 100 dead birds were found along the King Country coastline, near a biodiversity hotspot.

A Kāwhia local reported 134 dead birds had washed ashore between Kāwhai Ocean Beach and Aotea Harbour on Saturday.

Ōtorohanga District Council and the Department of Conservation were notified, and it's believed high tides sweeping over a breeding colony on nearby Gannet Island were to blame.

The dead birds were initially mistaken as albatrosses, then identified as gannets by DOC - with 117 of them juvenile gannets, known as gugas.
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Snowflake

Snow falls on Maunakea, Mauna Loa summits in Hawaii


West Hawaii Today
Mon, 25 Jan 2021 11:45 UTC
The Maunakea summit was blanketed with snow Monday evening amid a winter storm warning that remains posted for Hawaii Island summits until 6 p.m. Tuesday.
© W.M. Keck ObservatoryThe Maunakea summit was blanketed with snow Monday evening amid a winter storm warning that remains posted for Hawaii Island summits until 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The Maunakea and Mauna Loa summits were blanketed with snow Monday evening amid a winter storm warning that remains posted until 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Honolulu are calling for heavy snow, with accumulations up to 8 inches, and wind gusts up to 45 mph, for the two Hawaii Island summits.

The Maunakea Access Road was closed to the public Monday evening at the Visitor Information Station at the 9,200-foot level elevation.

Forecasters predict that a strong high pressure system northeast of Hawaii and a trough to the southwest will combine to create locally strong southeast winds over Hawaii through the midweek.

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Cloud Precipitation

Deadly floods, landslides in Santa Catarina, Brazil - 3 inches of rain in 3 hours

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 11:45 UTC
floods
Further heavy rain has triggered flooding and landslides in the city of Florianópolis and areas of Santa Catarina state, Brazil .

Flash flooding and landslides were reported in Florianópolis after heavy rainfall on 21 January, 2021.

More heavy rain was reported in the state of Santa Catarina during the following days, in particular in the capital, Florianópolis. Civil Defense of Santa Catarina (DCSC) said almost 40mm of rain fell in Florianópolis in a 1 hour period around midday on 24 January. DCSC added that 86mm of rain fell in 3 hours and 104mm in 6 hours.

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Snowflake Cold

Migratory birds wintering in northern Iran increased by 30% due to severe, premature cold in Siberia


Tehran Times
Mon, 25 Jan 2021 11:10 UTC
The population of migratory birds took flight
The population of migratory birds took flight to spend the cold season in the northern province of Mazandaran increased by 30 percent since the beginning of winter (December 21, 2020) compared to the same period last year, head of wildlife affairs at the provincial department of environment (DOE) has said.
The annual census for migratory birds in Iran begins in the middle of the Iranian calendar month of Dey (December 22- January 20) and ends in the middle of the month of Bahman (January 21- February 19), which will be a 1-month period since January 1 to 31.

The reason for the increase in the migration of wintering birds this year is due to the severe and premature cold in Siberia, Korous Rabiei stated, IRNA reported on Monday.

According to the wintering census last year, 90 species of migratory birds with a population of over 500,000 migrated to the three wetlands of Miankaleh, Sorkhrud, and Azbaran, reservoirs and protected areas of the province, which is predicted to reach up to 700,000 this [Iranian calendar] year, he explained.

He went on to say that the largest increase in the migratory birds' population is related to the whooper swan, whose number increased about 10 times compared to the same period last year, from 500 to about 5,000.
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Snowflake

Winter storms alerts in effect for 23 US states

Kathryn Prociv
NBC News
Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:44 UTC
A satellite image shows weather over the United States
© NOAAA satellite image shows weather over the United States on Monday.

The country is expected to be hit with a slew of storms this week with winter weather alerts in effect Monday for 60 million people across 23 states, stretching from Southern California to the Midwest and mid-Atlantic.

Heavy snow was expected to fall Monday from the Central Plains to the Midwest and Great Lakes where cities like Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; and especially Chicago could see their biggest snowstorm of the season.

Snowfall rates, forecast to be 2 inches per hour at times, will likely cause treacherous travel conditions and the risk of power outages.

For the Chicago area, heavy snow occurring around Monday evening's rush hour could also be met with lakeshore flooding from Lake Michigan. Strong winds across the Great Lakes are expected to kick up large waves and cause flooding. For Lake Michigan, forecasts called for waves of 10-13 feet, producing a risk for water splashing up on Lake Shore Drive as well as inundating nearby parks and parking lots.


Comment: Spectacular snowfall was also recorded in Naco, Sonora, Mexico:



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Seismograph

Powerful 5.8-magnitude quake hits Auckland Islands, New Zealand, USGS says

Henry Batyaev
Sputnik
Sun, 24 Jan 2021 02:19 UTC
seismograph
© AP Photo
New Zealand is located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire and regularly suffers from powerful earthquakes.

A powerful 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted the Auckland Islands, an archipelago 465 kilometres south of the South Island at 05:47:53 UTC, United States Geological Survey said on Sunday.

The seismic activity was registered at a depth of 10 kilometres by the USGS. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, however, reports that the epicentre of the quake was determined to be at a 2 kilometre-depth.

No data of any injuries or damage have been reported so far.

The country is situated in a collision zone between the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, and earthquakes occur frequently. The region is part of the Pacific Ocean basin's "Ring of Fire", famous for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
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Arrow Up

Strong activity at Russia's Klyuchevskoy volcano

Volcano Discovery
YouTube
Sun, 24 Jan 2021 20:06 UTC
Russia volcano eruption
© YouTube/Volcano Discovery (screen capture)
Time-lapse of strong activity at Klyuchevskoy volcano in Kamchatka, the world's largest and most active stratovolcano, today 24 Jan 2021: increased lava effusion from the summit leads to glowing avalanches on the SW flank that trigger massive block and ash flows (pyroclastic flows) with tall ash plumes rising several kilometers. Klyuchevskoy volcano updates: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/klyu...

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Snowflake

Desert snow makes winter wonderland in Joshua Tree National Park, California - up to 6 inches deep

Mine Exploration and Hiking with Tom and Julie
YouTube
Sun, 24 Jan 2021 18:36 UTC
snow

On the evening of January 23rd it started to rain in Joshua Tree, and by morning there were 6 inches of snow, turning the dry desert into a beautiful winter wonderland.

We were some of the first visitors to the park and captured some amazing views. We spotted three coyotes hunting in the snow and a hawk taking flight from the top of a snowy Joshua Tree.

Some of the scenes recorded are of the Queen Valley, Wonderland of Rocks, Pine City back country board, Queen Mountain, Mount San Gorgonio and Negro Hill.

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Butterfly

Monarch butterfly population getting closer to extinction - less than 2,000 of western population counted wintering in California

Olga R. Rodriguez
Global News
Fri, 22 Jan 2021 12:57 UTC
Monarch butterfly pauses in a field of goldenrod
© Gene J. PuskarIn this Sept. 11, 2020 file photo, a Monarch butterfly pauses in a field of goldenrod at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa.
The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday.

An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California's Marin County to San Diego County in the south in the 1980s.

Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster to keep warm. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread across the U.S. once warmer weather arrives in March.

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