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These seabirds are choking on a plastic ocean

Nick Paton Walsh
My Wabash Valley
Mon, 02 Jan 2017 18:49 UTC
Plastic
Shock, combined with a little wonder at the unnatural. That's how I feel as I watch the knife slice through the sternum of a dead Laysan albatross.

Inside its ribcage: a sickening array of plastic.

A red bottle top from a well-known soft drink brand. A cigarette lighter. Or two. Long thin items I couldn't begin to identify.

It looked like the bird had swallowed the contents of an entire trash can whole.

Yet this wasn't because it dined on a refuse site. I was on Midway Island, in the remote Pacific Ocean, at least 1,500 miles from the nearest one of those. This disgusting and otherworldly sight exists because we're throwing the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic into the oceans every minute. By 2050, a number of researchers expect the world's oceans to contain more plastic than fish, by weight.

Matt Brown, from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, used to live on the island and is now our guide.
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Attention

Part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park collapses into ocean

Debabrata Sabud
Latin Post.
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 18:20 UTC
A large plume of rock debris and gas emanates from the Kamokuna lava ocean entry within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, just moments after the lava delta began to collapse.
© Travis Delimont
A large plume of rock debris and gas emanates from the Kamokuna lava ocean entry within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, just moments after the lava delta began to collapse.
Twenty-six new acres of Hawaii Island at the Kamokuna ocean entry from the 61g lava flow has collapsed into the ocean. It occurred on December 31, 2016, at 2.45 P.M on New Year's Eve.

According to HAWAI'I, the incident took place at Hawaii Volcanoes' National Park. This incident is launching showers of volcano rock into the air, and creating a flurry of large waves that eroded away a portion of the older sea cliff and viewing area.

As a result of this, the Kamokuna ocean entry within the park remains closed on Monday. The park rangers and USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have currently surveyed the area to determine if and when it will be safe to reopen to visitors.

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Attention

Dozens of birds fall from sky along Route 22 near Whitehall, Pennsylvania

Emily Opilo
The Morning Call
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 16:41 UTC
Dozens of blackbirds similar to this one apparently fell from the sky on the Route 22 median Friday afternoon, according to state police and multiple witnesses who drove through the area.

Dozens of blackbirds similar to this one apparently fell from the sky on the Route 22 median Friday afternoon, according to state police and multiple witnesses who drove through the area.
You don't have to look far for a sign of the coming apocalypse. Just check the median of Route 22.

That's where dozens of black birds apparently fell from the sky Friday afternoon, according to state police and multiple witnesses who drove through the area.

Terrence Haynes and his wife were driving east on Route 22 Friday when suddenly traffic slowed near the Route 512 exit. At first, it looked like shredded tires scattered all over the road, Haynes said. As they drove closer, it became clear that the black objects were birds. Haynes estimated that there were at least 20.

"I'm not kidding when I say it was one of the most terrible things I've ever seen," Haynes said Monday.

David Godiska of Whitehall came upon a similar scene around 1:45 p.m. while driving east near what he thought was the Fullerton Avenue exit. Traffic slowed suddenly, he said.
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Seismograph

Woman dies as 5.7 magnitude earthquake hits India-Bangladesh border

Agartala/Guwahati/Shillong
Hindustan Times
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 15:24 UTC
India-Bangladesh earthquake map
© USGS
Magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit India-Bangladesh border region.
One women was killed and few other injured when a moderate earthquake measuring 5.7 magnitude on the Richter scale hit Tripura on Tuesday, triggering landslides in the hill state and jolting the country's northeast region.

There was no report of any major damage from other states, officials said.

The epicentre of the quake was Dhalai in northern Tripura at a depth of 28 km.

Kamalini Kanda, 50, died of heart attack out of fear during the tremor at Kamalpur in Dhalai district in Tripura, an official of the Tripura Disaster Management Centre said.

Five other people were injured in different parts of the state during the quake.

The official said at least 50 house were damaged, some badly, as landslides occurred in different places of Dhalai district. The earthquake blocked roads after trees were uprooted.

The quake hit most states of the northeastern region at 2.39 pm, triggering panic.
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Cloud Precipitation

Last winter's floods in the UK worst in 100 years confirms NERC centre report


NERC
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:04 UTC
Flooding in Cumberland Street, York.
© John Hart, Environment Agency.
Flooding in Cumberland Street, York.
A NERC centre's scientific review of the winter floods of 2015-2016 confirms that the event was one of the most extreme and severe hydrological events of the last century.

The study, carried out by scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) in collaboration with the British Hydrological Society (BHS), recognises that the episode ranks alongside the floods of 1947 as one of the two largest flood events of the last 100 years at least.

The new hydrological appraisal - 'The Winter Floods of 2015-16 in the UK', published on the first anniversary of Storm Desmond (5 December) - brings together both river flow and meteorological data in an analysis of the events that led to extensive river flooding in northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of Wales over a three month period.

Storm Desmond alone caused an estimated insurance bill of more than £1·3bn when it struck on 5-6 December 2015.
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Cloud Lightning

Video shows woman hit by lightning on beach in Itanhaém, Brazil

Anton Nilsson
Daily Mail UK
Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:58 UTC
Video shows the woman walking down a rainy beach when lightning strikes

Video shows the woman walking down a rainy beach when lightning strikes
This is the moment a Brazilian woman is struck by lightning on a beach near São Paulo.

Video shows the woman walking down a rainy beach when lightning strikes.

She instantly falls to the ground. Several other nearby beachgoers appear unhurt.

The victim was identified in local media as Taline Campos, 25, from Guarulhos, a city in the São Paulo metropolitan area.

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Fire

Huge wildfire burns 100 homes in Valparaiso, Chile


RT
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 09:45 UTC
Fire burns a house on a hill, where more than 100 homes were burned due to forest fire but there have been no reports of death, local authorities said in Valparaiso, Chile January 2, 2017
© Rodrigo Garrido / Reuters
Fire burns a house on a hill, where more than 100 homes were burned due to forest fire but there have been no reports of death, local authorities said in Valparaiso, Chile January 2, 2017
A raging wildfire burned 100 homes in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso, forcing the evacuation of some 400 people. At least 19 residents were harmed, mostly by smoke inhalation, after the blaze broke out on the city's outskirts, fanned by high winds.

Valparaiso residents put on masks in an attempt to protect themselves from plumes of black smoke, AP reported.

The authorities have issued a maximum red alert.

"It was hopeless. The smoke was suffocating. It stung my eyes. So, we had to evacuate," Pablo Luna Flores, a local resident who lost his home, told AFP.

Fire is seen on a hill, where more than 100 homes were burned due to forest fire but there have been no reports of death, local authorities said in Valparaiso, Chile January 2, 2017
© Rodrigo Garrido / Reuters
Fire is seen on a hill, where more than 100 homes were burned due to forest fire but there have been no reports of death, local authorities said in Valparaiso, Chile January 2, 2017
"The fire was coming from the other side of the hill, down below. We never thought it would spread so far," added Rosa Gallardo, who also lost her home to the fire.

Comment: See also:

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Tornado1

Five dead as severe storms including tornadoes hit southern US

Eric Chaney, Melissa Kory
The Weather Channel
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 05:28 UTC
Mount Olive storm damage
© Ryan Moore/WDAM-TV via AP
Debris lies on the ground after a storm south of Mount Olive, Miss., moved through the area Monday, Jan. 2, 2017.
Four people died in a structure on Monday evening in Alabama when a tree crashed through it while another man died in Florida while trying to evacuate his home as strong storms moved through the South.

Numerous tornadoes have been confirmed, lightning has sparked several houses fires and and high winds knocked out power to more than 80,000 people in two states. Downed trees and damaged buildings were reported in at least 28 counties in Mississippi, 15 parishes in Louisiana and 15 counties in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

Florida

A Walton County man was found drowned near his submerged vehicle in Mossy Head Monday afternoon, the Walton County Sheriff reported. Sheriff's officers believe the man was trying to evacuate from a travel trailer off of W T Hulion Road.

No further information has been released pending notification of the man's next of kin.

Alabama

Four people died in a structure in Rehobeth, just southwest of Dothan in southeastern Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley confirmed on Twitter.

The individuals were in a mobile home when a tree crashed through it, the Dothan Eagle reports.

A three-foot sinkhole opened up in Dothan on Monday morning, following severe rainfall Sunday, according to WTVY.

Emergency management officials in Jackson declared a flash flood emergency for the town of about 5,000, located 65 miles north of Mobile. The flash flood emergency was cancelled Monday evening.
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Sun

Severe weather: Sydney heatwave marks hottest year on record

Peter Hannam
The Sydney Morning Herald
Fri, 30 Dec 2016 18:31 UTC
Maroubra Beach
© Kate Geraghty
Exercising early at Maroubra Beach on Wednesday.
A scorching end to 2016 will ensure Sydney registers its hottest year in more than a century-and-a-half of records.

The mercury is expected to climb to 37 degrees in the city on Thursday and 42 in Penrith, and fall just a couple of degrees shy of that on Friday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

All of coastal NSW will endure a heatwave on Thursday, with almost all of it either ranked as severe or extreme. (See bureau chart below). Authorities have also activated the state's heatwave action plan to ensure the public takes care to limit the effects of the heat, such as by staying hydrated and limiting outdoor activity.

The surge of late-December heat means Sydney would notch the city's hottest year in records going back to 1858 "without a doubt", Joel Pippard, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said. "To not do that, temperatures would have be below zero."

According to Weatherzone, Sydney's maximum temperatures, including Wednesday's top of almost 29 degrees, lifted the average so far this year to 23.76 degrees. That's two degrees above the long run norm, and about a quarter degree higher than the previous hottest year in 2013.

Minimum temperatures will eclipse the previous high set in 2010 by almost half a degree, and are running at an average of just over 15.5 degrees for 2016 with just a couple of days to go, Mr Pippard said.
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Cloud Precipitation

Science, politics, morality and climate change - Professor John Christy


YouTube
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 17:54 UTC
Geoff Derrick writes: The John Christie talk is one of the best I have seen for a long time, keeping things simple but very very effective in the message. It should be compulsory viewing while still in holiday mode to take 1 hour off and watch the main event. It is just simply excellent, logical observation at work here.
John Christy
© The Huntsville Times
John Christy, the director of the Earth System Science Center at the UAH, has also been criticized for his views on global warming.
Professor John Christy, Alabama state climatologist speaks on science, politics and morality as they relate to climate change "action".
Recorded December, 2015.

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