Earth Changes

Sky watchers across southeast Wisconsin treated to beautiful sun halo

Kristen Kirchhaine
WTMJ
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 17:51 UTC

Monday afternoon brought a treat to sky watchers across SE Wisconsin; the sun was surrounded by a beautiful halo.

TMJ4 viewers sent the Storm Team lots of great photos.

A halo looks like a whitish ring surrounding the sun. Occasionally, onlookers can see some color in the halo, most often a reddish band in the inner portion of the ring.

This phenomena happens on days where high, thin clouds are present. These high cirrus clouds, which develop above 20,000 feet, are are composed of ice crystals. Halos are typically seen when these six-sided ice crystals have a random orientation. The sunlight is then dispersed through the ice crystals and the light is refracted, creating the halo.

Bugged: Earth's insect population shrinks 27% in 30 years

Seth Borenstein
kimatv.com
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:19 UTC

© Mike Thomas
This undated photo provided by Michael Thomas in April 2020 shows a clouded sulphur butterfly in Cromwell, Conn.

The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research.

From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science.

That's a tinier population decline than found by some smaller localized studies, which had triggered fears of a so-called insect apocalypse. But it still adds up to something "awfully alarming," said entomologist Roel van Klink of the German Centre for Integrative Biology, the study's lead author.

Lightning bolt kills two farmers in Faridpur, Bangladesh

UNB
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:16 UTC

Two farmers were killed after being struck by a lightning strike in Charbhadrasan upazila here on Friday.

The deceased were identified as Joynal Mollah, 39, son of Khaleque Mollah of Ramnagar village in Sadarpur Upazila, and Hashem Mollah, 61, son of late Tanu Mollah of Charbhadrasan.

Charbhadrasan Upazila Nirbahi Officer Jesmin Sultana said the two farmers lost their lives while grazing cattle in Mathavanga area of Charbhadrasan Sadar Union around 2pm.

"I've visited the spot immediately and handed over Tk 20,000 to each of the bereaved families as financial assistance," she added.

Massive forest fire in Qingdao, China

Chave Weather
YouTube
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:03 UTC

A massive wild forest fire causes devastation and causes citizens to leave in Qingdao, Shangdong, China.

Lightning strikes kill at least 6 in Odisha, India

The Times of India
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 12:54 UTC

At least six persons were killed on Friday in separate lightning strikes in the state. The deaths were reported from Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Balasore districts. Bhubaneswar along with other places of the state received heavy rainfall on the day.

Three youths from Badapathara village under Khunta police station in Mayurbhanj district were killed in lightning strikes. The trio identified as Jaminikanta Mahanta, 22, Dibyashankara Mahanta, 26, and Koushish Mahanta, 19, had gone for fishing to a pond near their village at around 11am.

Fire services personnel reached the spot and admitted the youths to Khunta community health centre where the doctor declared them 'brought dead'.

Shallow 6.3-magnitude earthquake jolts off Papua New Guinea coast

China.org.cn
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 12:45 UTC

An earthquake measuring 6.3 magnitude struck 132 km from the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The tremor occurred at 12:53 p.m. local time west of Panguna town on Bougainville Island.

According to the USGS, the earthquake was recorded at 6.511 degrees south latitude and 154.301 degrees east longitude at a depth of 16.9 km.

So far there have been no reports or updates from any media agencies or government bodies regarding damage and no Tsunami warning had been issued at this time.

Source: Xinhua

Heavy spring blizzard hits northern China, biggest in decades say residents

Alex Linder
Shanghaiist
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 05:44 UTC

Spring has brought a blizzard to the door of many in northern China, trapping them inside.

The snowstorm over the last couple of days has covered large swathes of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia with localities raising red alerts for snowfall.

Some residents of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province say that they haven't seen so much snow in 20 or 30 years.

Footage from up north shows snow burying cars and blocking the doors of some houses, forcing people to climb out windows to escape.

Hailstones the size of apples batter the northern provinces of Vietnam

Yahoo! News
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 21:05 UTC

A large hailstorm battered parts of the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam on April 23.

Dramatic footage shows an apple-sized hailstone.

Egypt shuts five Red Sea ports due to major sandstorm

Ahram Online
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 20:47 UTC

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority had warned of a "peak of unstable weather" during the first day of Ramadan, which falls on Friday.

Khaled Zahran, head of the Red Sea Ports Authority, ordered the closure of Port Tawfik, El-Zeiteya, and Ataka due to wind speeds of 40 knots and wave heights of 4 metres, in order to protect life and property.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone's Sokhna and Adabiya ports were also closed to commercial vessel traffic.

The Friday sandstorm turned skies yellow across Cairo and in other areas, greatly reducing visibility.

Severe hailstorm leaves 4,200 people homeless in Tripura, India

The New Indian Express
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:42 UTC

A total of 4,200 people of three districts of Tripura were rendered homeless while over 5,500 houses were damaged or destroyed by hailstorm that lashed the state on Tuesday, an official report said here.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb along with officials visited the worst-hit Sepahajala district on Thursday. The other two affected districts are West Tripura and Khowai.

"At least 5,000 houses have been affected and over 4,200 people taken shelter in relief camps following a hailstorm that hit three districts -- Sepahijala, West Tripura and Khowai districts," the report released from the Chief Ministers Office said.