Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Heavy snow in Japan causes power blackouts and stranded train passengers

heavy snow japan
Over 1,300 passengers spent the night trapped in trains stranded due to power blackouts caused by heavy snowfalls in Japan's northern Niigata Prefecture.

Some 1,350 passengers found themselves spending the night on trains stranded in Japan's northern Niigata Prefecture on Sunday, according to The Japan Times.

The trains were stranded by a power outage resulting from heavy snowstorms.

Comment: Temperatures have been declining for the past 16 years and it looks like that is going to continue, so we will probably be seeing much more of the above scenarios.

30 leading scientists predict global cooling


Question

Residents complain of 'rotten fish' smell in Santa Rosa, Florida

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Local officials can't confirm the source of a strange stench that has area residents complaining on social media.

Area residents are complaining on social media about a strange smell that stretches from Pace to Gulf Breeze and the beaches. But local officials can't confirm what the smell is or where it's coming from.

"We haven't had any reports of any issues," said Joy Tsubooka, the public information officer for Santa Rosa County. "It's hard to say what it is because on very clear, very cold days like this, odors can travel very far."

Residents have described the stench as smelling like spoiled milk and dead fish.

"Why does it smell of rotten fish all over #Pensacola this morning?" one resident asked on Twitter.

Comment: See also: Mystery odor fouling life in Beacon Woods, Bayonet Point, Florida


Snowflake Cold

30 leading scientists predict global cooling

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The Earth is about to begin a steep drop in global temperatures off its present global temperature plateau. This plateau has been caused by the absence of growth in global temperatures for 18 years, the start of global cooling in the atmosphere and the oceans, and the end of a short period of moderate solar heating from an unusually active secondary peak in solar cycle #24.

Average global atmospheric and oceanic temperatures will drop significantly beginning between 2015 and 2016 and will continue with only temporary reversals until they stabilize during a long cold temperature base lasting most of the 2030's and 2040's. The bottom of the next global cold climate caused by a "solar hibernation" (a pronounced reduction in warming energy coming from the Sun) is expected to be reached by the year 2031.

The predicted temperature decline will continue for the next fifteen years and will likely be the steepest ever recorded in human history, discounting past short-duration volcanic events.

Global average temperatures during the 2030's will reach a level of at least 1.5° C lower.


Comment: See also: The Little Ice Age predicted to start in 2014

Last Ice Age took just SIX months to arrive

Ice Ages start and end so suddenly, "it's like a button was pressed," say scientists


Attention

Raccoon attacks woman in Monroe, Louisiana

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One Monroe family is concerned for their safety, and the well-being of their pets after a raccoon attacked them this weekend. Now, they're speaking out so others know of the danger.

Ruth Ulrich never expected to spend her Saturday afternoon warding off a diseased raccoon.

"It was during the daylight, it's laying around as though it were a cat or something, all stretched out. Then it would wake up from that state and would have something that appeared to be like seizures," said Ulrich.

Ulrich says it was hissing and charging at her. She wasn't sure what to do, so she called the police.

"The policeman said if there's any problems, call me back, but he needed to go on and do other things," said Ulrich.


Cow

Cow flees slaugherhouse in Pocatello, Idaho

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© Idaho State JournalA Pocatello police officer watches over the cow that escaped from a butcher shop on Friday afternoon.
Police fatally shot a 1,000-pound cow Friday afternoon that had led them on a lengthy chase through the city's north side.

The heifer eventually died after being shot by a Pocatello police officer in the backyard of a residence at Henderson and Jessie Clark lanes around 1:30 p.m.

Police had shot the animal earlier in the pursuit but the wounded cow kept running.


Pocatello Police Chief Scott Marchand said the two shots his officers took at the cow were fired because of the safety risk the animal posed.

Rainbow

Quietest 3 years on record for U.S. twisters

tornado and road
© www.onstarconnections.comTwister, a vortex on the move.
The U.S. experienced fewer tornadoes in the past three years than any similar span since accurate records began in the 1950s. Yet meteorologists aren't sure exactly why.

As this year comes to a close, about 150 fewer damaging tornadoes than average have hit the U.S., according to data from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). Explanations for the decrease in twisters the past three years range from unusual cold to unusual heat, or just coincidence.

Despite the calmer than average years, deaths due to twisters remain near the average of 60 each year, with 68 killed in 2012, 55 in 2013 and 42 so far this year, according to the SPC. That pales in comparison with the 553 Americans killed by tornadoes in 2011.

So far this year, just 348 EF-1 or stronger tornadoes have touched down across the country, marking the third-lowest number on record. An average year sees about 500 EF-1 or greater tornadoes. A total of 364 EF-1 or stronger tornadoes touched down in 2012 and 404 in 2013.

EF refers to the Enhanced Fujita Scale of tornado intensity, which runs from EF-0 to EF-5. Most twisters that cause damage and deaths are EF-1 or higher, with wind speeds of at least 86 mph.

Harold Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., said there's no consistent reason for the three-year lull - the calmest stretch since a similar quiet period in the late 1980s - because weather patterns have varied significantly from year to year.

Comment: Interesting that the tornado experts won't hazard a guess as to the factors influencing the creation and intensity of the twister phenomena. Consider that the lack of West Coast storms that has magnified the drought conditions in California, and other coastal states, account in part for the decrease in large-scale weather systems that travel across the country. Low temperatures from recent "polar vortexes" has to be a factor (due to the global temperature downturn as we approach ice-age triggering conditions). And, the experts do not address the electrical component (charge rebalancing between the ionosphere and the Earth's surface) of tornadoes coupled with the effects of, and reasons for, the solar minimum (a less positively charged ionosphere causing a reduction in the electric potential differential). Perhaps they need to do some homework and come up with some answers.


Water

Full scale of plastic pollution in the world's oceans revealed for first time

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Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world

More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world's oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.

Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them "micro plastics" measuring less than 5mm.

The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world's oceans.

Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.

Attention

Rescued dolphins beach themselves for second time with nine dead in New Zealand

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© Glenys UrlichUp to 20 common dolphins were stuck in shallows off Tokerau Beach until locals hearded them back out to sea.
A pod of dolphins rescued by locals at Tokerau Beach last week is believed to have re-stranded at the Cavalli Islands with deadly results.

The Department of Conservation's Bay of Islands manager, Rolien Elliot, said 14 common dolphins became stranded on Motukawanui Island, the largest of the Cavalli Islands off Matauri Bay, during incoming tide on Friday evening.

Nine carcasses were discovered by officials from DoC and Far North Whale Rescue while the rest were presumed to have made their way back out to sea.

It could have been the same pod of common dolphins that was stranded in Doubtless Bay a few days earlier, but testing would be needed to confirm whether that was the case.

The dead dolphins were due to be buried on the island yesterday.

Comment: There have now been 15 reports of dead cetaceans emanating from Australasia over the last 3 months, see also -

Six sperm whales found dead in rare mass beaching in South Australia

3 stranded sperm whales die on Rototai beach, New Zealand

12th report in 2 months of dead cetaceans Down Under: Carcass of humpback whale found drifting off Perth coast, Australia

Humpback whale carcass found on Gold Coast beach, Australia

36 stranded pilot whales die in New Zealand

Rare beaked whale found dead on Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Rare, record-sized pygmy whale found dead on Victorian beach, Australia

Eight-metre dead whale washes onto rocks in Batemans Bay, Australia

Dead humpback whale found on Kapiti Coast, New Zealand

Rare deep sea dwelling beaked whale washes up on beach near Newcastle, Australia

Denizen of deep water, cuviers beaked whale found dead on Titahi Bay beach, New Zealand

Humpback whale washes up dead at Kalbarri beach, Western Australia

Dead fin whale found on beach in Warrnambool, Australia

Two dead humpback whales wash up on NSW beaches, Australia

Creatures from the deep signal major Earth Changes: Is anyone paying attention?


Cow

Lincolnshire farm worker dies following cow attack

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An East Lindsey farm worker has died after being attacked by a cow.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the incident, which took place at a Wragby farm on Easter Sunday, April 21.

60-year-old stockman John Turner is said to have been seriously injured in an attack by a cow at Kilmister Farm.

Mr Turner was taken by air ambulance to Hull Royal Infirmary, but later died.

Wragby-based HR Bourn & Sons Ltd, which owns the farm, confirmed that it was co-operating with the HSE investigation into the incident.

A statement from the company said: "John Turner tragically died in hospital after being attacked by a cow at Kilmister Farm in Wragby on April 21.

Cow

Cow kills farm worker in Cherryville, Canada

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The man killed in a cow attack on a B.C. farm on Canada Day has been identified by the B.C. Coroners Service as 49-year-old Allen Donald Powder.

Powder, who called Yellowknife, N.W.T., home, came to the Okanagan to work every summer. He was working on a farm in Cherryville, B.C., the morning of July 1. Cherryville, which is at the foothills of the Monashee Mountains, is roughly 55 kilometres east of Vernon in B.C.'s North Okanagan.

According to a statement released by the coroner, Powder and another farm worker were moving cattle from one corral to another when the cow attacked. "One of the cows became very agitated and aggressive and they were having trouble controlling the cow," said B.C. Coroners Service spokesperson Barb McLintock.