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Attention

Cold spell over January killed at least 35 manatees in Florida

Annika Hammerschlag
Naples Daily News
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 19:04 UTC
Manatees endure another deadly year

Manatees endure another deadly year
Recent cold spells have taken a toll on Florida's beloved sea cows.

At least 35 manatees died from the cold between Jan. 1 and 26, compared with seven over the same period last year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

An average of eight manatees died from the cold in the month of January from 2013 to 2017.

Manatees are ill-adapted to survive in frigid water. Their bodies are mostly lungs and ribs — they have deceptively little blubber.

The last time Florida saw an uptick in cold-related manatee deaths was in 2010 and 2011 when the number of manatees that died from the cold reached 282 and 114, respectively.

"It's been really busy," said Maya Rodriguez, a veterinarian at Miami Seaquarium, which rehabilitates sick manatees.


Comment: See also this report from December last year: Rare manatees endure another deadly year, with 513 deaths

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Bizarro Earth

Invasive 20-pound rodents with ability to destroy roads are causing havoc in California

Tom Miller
SF Gate
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:37 UTC
nutria, large rodent

A giant 20-pound rodent with the ability to destroy roads, levees and wetlands has been discovered in Stanislaus County.
A giant invasive rodent with the ability to destroy roads, levees and wetlands has been discovered in Stanislaus County.

Weighing in at 20 pounds and measuring 2 feet, 6 inches long, plus a 12-inch tail, the nutria live in or near water. They're also incredibly destructive.

"They burrow in dikes, and levees, and road beds, so they weaken infrastructure, (which is) problematic for flood control systems," California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Peter Tira said.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is sounding an alarm about the invasive nutria.

When nutria aren't burrowing, they're eating. They can consume 25 percent of their body weight each day in vegetation, but they waste and destroy 10 times that.
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Attention

Crews working to repair massive sinkhole in southwest Bakersfield, California

Johana Restrepo
23ABC News
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 07:59 UTC
Sinkhole in Bakersfield, CA
Construction crews have been working to repair a massive sinkhole at the corner of Harris and Ashe Roads since last Tuesday.

The construction site is surrounded by residential communities and city employees are advising that people take alternate routes and avoid the area when possible.

The sinkhole is so large it is taking up most of the road. Crews could no confirm when they think the damage will be repaired.

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Apple Green

One-two punch of disease and Hurricane Irma has left Florida citrus reeling

Kalhan Rosenblatt
MSN News
Sun, 11 Feb 2018 18:36 UTC
fruit
In the hours after Hurricane Irma raked up Florida's spine, warm sunshine revealed thousands upon thousands of pieces of citrus fruit bobbing in muddied, stagnant water.

Millions of dollars worth of oranges, grapefruits, and tangerines were ripped from their branches by fierce winds, never to reach their intended destination of breakfast plates and juice glasses.

It was the nightmare many sleepless farmers prayed they wouldn't see.

"I remember ... heading out to the fields as soon as it was safe to get out on the roads and being taken back at how much fruit was blown on the ground ... and how many trees had just been blown over," said one citrus farmer, William Roe III, 35, known as Gee.

"We were literally blown away by the severity of the damage," said Roe's uncle, Quentin Roe, 59, the chief executive of Wm. G. Roe & Sons, a longtime grower and distributor.
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Seismograph

'Like an explosion': Western France shaken by 4.8 magnitude earthquake


The Local France
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 09:51 UTC
M4.8 earthquake in France
Residents in western France were given a fairly rude awakening at 4am on Monday morning when they were shaken from their sleep by an earthquake measuring 4.8 magnitude.

The epicentre of the tremor, which didn't cause any injuries or fatalities, was reported to have been close to the town of Saint-Hilaire-de-Voust in the Vendée department of western France, which stands close to the department of Deux-Sèvres.

Residents in the area were left trembling and reports suggest the tremors were felt as far away as the city of Poitiers, 100 kilometres from the epicentre.

A baker in the town of Busseau told RMC radio: "I was in my bakery and then it was like a big explosion, a terrible shock, we thought a truck had crashed into a wall."

A baker in the town of Châtaigneraie added: "I was scared. I thought it was an explosion. There was a 'boom' for a few seconds, maybe five seconds. It's happened before but it's never been that powerful."

The mayor of the town of 2,700 residents Nicolas Maupetit told France Info radio: "I thought there had been an accident perhaps a lorry which had crashed into a house nearby. I felt the house shake. I grabbed my telephone in case people started calling. I have to say my heart was racing."

While it might have scared residents the earthquake did not provoke any real structural damage.

Comment: Last October the French Alps were rocked by 140 earthquakes in just over a month.

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Snowflake Cold

Cold weather records broken at 6 places in Saskatchewan, Canada


CBC News
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:23 UTC
Val Marie was still the cold spot, early Tuesday morning as temperatures were around –29 C. The warm spot in the province was Buffalo Narrows at –6 C.

Val Marie was still the cold spot, early Tuesday morning as temperatures were around –29 C. The warm spot in the province was Buffalo Narrows at –6 C.
It was another really cold day in Saskatchewan on Monday as six daily cold weather records were broken.

Val Marie was the cold spot in the province, with temperatures dipping down to - 43.6 C. That broke a record of - 32.2 C for Feb. 12, which was set in 1949.

Val Marie was an outlier, as it was about seven degrees colder than the other coldest places in the province. Kindersley, Weyburn and Coronach dipped to - 36 C.

Val Marie was still the cold spot early Tuesday morning as temperatures hovered around - 29 C. The warm spot in the province was Buffalo Narrows at - 6 C.
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Snowflake

Woman hangs out washing in shoulder-deep snow in Iceland (PHOTO)


Iceland Monitor
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:54 UTC
The photo that was shared all across Iceland and beyond.
© Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir
The photo that was shared all across Iceland and beyond.
Photographer Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir who lives in Ísafjörður in the West Fjords of Iceland wanted to show her husband, who lives in the capital, how much it had snowed overnight and posted a photo of herself hanging out the washing on her Facebook page.

Having the washing line in the photograph was to help people assess the amount of snow she tells Mbl.is.

Rebekka grew up in Florida and then moved to Hafnarfjörður, a town just outside of Reykjavik, so these extreme conditions are quite exotic for her. However, her husband who is from Húsavík in North Iceland had told her stories about such heavy snowfall.
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Snowflake Cold

Heavy snowfall (up to 3 feet) hits Sea of Japan coast, at least 5 die


The Japan Times
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:00 UTC
A woman walks during heavy snow in Fukui on Monday.
© KYODO
A woman walks during heavy snow in Fukui on Monday.
At least five people died in prefectures facing the Sea of Japan and elsewhere as heavy snowfall hit the areas Monday due to a strong winter pressure pattern, according to a Kyodo News tally.

Sea of Japan coastal areas are expected to continue to see heavy snow through Tuesday, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning of avalanches and traffic disruption.

In Niigata Prefecture, a 90-year-old farmer was found dead in the city of Tokamachi in the morning after apparently falling into a snow-covered drain. A 62-year-old woman was also found to have drowned inside a drain in the city of Nagaoka after going out to shovel snow, according to local police.

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Attention

Beached humpback whale confirmed dead at Chincoteague Island, Virginia

Liz Holland and Carol Vaughn
delmarva now
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 12:59 UTC
Staff from the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Program perform a necropsy on a dead humpback whale
© Carol Vaughn
Staff from the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Program perform a necropsy on a dead humpback whale on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. The whale was discovered during the weekend on the southernmost end of the beach at Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia.
Staff from the Virginia Aquarium were at the site of a dead humpback whale found on the beach during the weekend at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

The dead immature female whale was reported to the Virginia Aquarium at about midday on Sunday, said spokesman Matthew Klepeisz.

The aquarium's Stranding Response Program was on site Monday to conduct a necropsy on the animal, he said.

"There are no immediate findings from the necropsy as the animal was more significantly decomposed than originally anticipated," Klepeisz said. "There are no external signs of human interaction that might have caused the stranding."

Humpback whales measure 48 feet to 62.5 feet long and weigh 40 tons, according to the National Geographic Society.

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Igloo

Arctic chill at minus 65C in Nunavut - eskimos advised to stay indoors

Steve Selden
Churchill Polar Bears
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:46 UTC
Rankin Inlet Nunavut
© Susan Enuaraq photo
Rankin Inlet in a deep freeze of -60C a couple of days ago.

Rankin Inlet, Nunavut gets cold in the winter. Located on the northwestern shore of the Hudson Bay at 62 degrees and between Chesterfield Inlet and Arviat, the town is definitely in a remote yet exposed region. Weather is just a part of life and recently the weather has been colder than cold.

Schools in the south get "snow days" though when you get to the 60-degree latitudes school closures are "cold days"...usually accompanied by some snow as well. When temperatures fall to -60C with the windchill or more than just about everyone will stay home and not risk going outside and expose skin. For the past few days, schools have cautiously remained closed.

"I don't remember the last time we actually closed due to weather. This is a bit of an extreme," said Mike Osmond, chair of the Rankin Inlet District Education Authority.

Comment: More recent examples of crazy low temperatures:

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