Severe hail storms sweep across south-east Queensland with gale-force winds and hailstones the size of golf balls
Australia's Gold Coast has been hit by a heavy storm, sending golf ball-sized hailstones crashing to the ground and causing damage to cars and homes.
Video shows the hailstones plummeting to the ground in a garden. The balls fall with such force that they bounce a few feet up into the air again.
The State Emergency Service has received 350 calls for help after the storm hit in the afternoon with gusts of up to 86 mph.
The Gold Coast experiences substantial summer thunderstorms and heavy showers occasionally lasting up to a few weeks at a time giving locals "the Summer blues".
Earth Changes
Eighty birds flew into a glass sound barrier in western Sweden on Sunday, in a mishap that proved fatal for the vast majority of the flock.
Nearly 80 birds died after flying into a glass wall "It was awful and tragic," Kirsten Ekholm of the Bird Center in Partille told The Local. "It's sad because it's so unnecessary. We know how to avoid this."
Ekholm was at the Bird Center, an organisation near Gothenburg which rehabilitates injured wild birds, when a couple came in with several shaken Bohemian Waxwings. Ekholm accompanied them back to a glass sound barrier near a highway, where she was shocked to see nearly eighty bird bodies strewn about.
"We have never seen so many at one time," Ekholm recounted. "And most of them were very young birds. It was a terrible sight."
Ekholm spent her Sunday gathering the bodies and examining the dead. Seventy-two of the birds were already dead when she arrived, and one died of its injuries during the night. Seven were still alive on Monday morning, but she said there was no guarantee they would make it.
"It's difficult to say if they will live. Many of them have internal bleeding, and one had its eye completely smashed," Ekholm told The Local.
Nearly 80 birds died after flying into a glass wall
Ekholm was at the Bird Center, an organisation near Gothenburg which rehabilitates injured wild birds, when a couple came in with several shaken Bohemian Waxwings. Ekholm accompanied them back to a glass sound barrier near a highway, where she was shocked to see nearly eighty bird bodies strewn about.
"We have never seen so many at one time," Ekholm recounted. "And most of them were very young birds. It was a terrible sight."
Ekholm spent her Sunday gathering the bodies and examining the dead. Seventy-two of the birds were already dead when she arrived, and one died of its injuries during the night. Seven were still alive on Monday morning, but she said there was no guarantee they would make it.
"It's difficult to say if they will live. Many of them have internal bleeding, and one had its eye completely smashed," Ekholm told The Local.
Are these strange sounds the aural equivalent of visual displays of 'northern lights'?
© Vietnam News Agency/AFP/Getty Images
Residents move their belongings from a flooded house in Qui Nhon city, central Vietnam.
Residents move their belongings from a flooded house in Qui Nhon city, central Vietnam.
In Quang Ngai province, where nine were killed and four people are missing, flood waters rose above a previous peak measured in 1999, submerging many houses, the official Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported on Sunday.
Flood waters rose quickly after 15 hydro power plants in the central region opened their sluice gates to release water in reservoir protection, the newspaper reported.
Around 100,000 houses were submerged and nearly 80,000 people have been evacuated, the government-run committee on floods and storm protection said in a report. Roads have been closed due to floods and some national train services canceled.
Britain is facing up to 100 days of heavy, persistent snow this winter
The latest detailed forecasts for winter 2013 ALL point towards months of relentless extreme cold with heavy snow 'extremely likely' across the country.
Arctic air will roar in from the North Pole later this week, triggering the start of the worst winter in many people's lifetimes.
Experts in long-range weather forecasting said the WHOLE of Britain should be prepared for this winter to be the most severe since 1947, which saw the UK hit by relentless snow and some of the lowest temperatures on record.
Six people were killed and dozens of homes devastated when up to 80 tornadoes struck Illinois and the surrounding states
States of emergency have been issued for seven Illinois counties in the wake of a series of powerful tornadoes that blew flipped over cars and uprooted trees.
Dozens of people were injured in the unusually powerful, late-season tornadoes. Three people were killed in Massac County, two in Washington County and one person died in the city of Washington, Tazewell County.
There are fears that some residents are still trapped inside their collapsed homes.
The National Weather Service confirmed preliminary EF-4 tornado damage in Washington County in southern Illinois, with winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour.
© Paul Morisson
Skiers and snowboarders will be able to hit the slopes at Whistler from Saturday
Skiers and snowboarders will be able to hit the slopes at Whistler from Saturday
Whistler Mountain at Whistler Blackcomb will now open on Saturday, thanks to cold temperatures, intensive snowmaking and heavy snowfall.
Five lifts will be in operation and guests will have the option of uploading from the Whistler Village or Creekside gondolas, with three lifts running higher up the mountain. Blackcomb Mountain will open as scheduled on 28 November.
As the title indicates, so far this month, we've seen more extreme weather, more sinkholes, a volcano erupting that had been dormant for 400 years, more fireballs, UFOs and strange 'sky' sounds. They're all definitely signs of the times!
© Las Vegas Guardian Express
Etna volcano erupts producing beautiful nighttime display.
Etna volcano erupts producing beautiful nighttime display.
Mount Etna is a composite volcano, comprised of numerous layers of solidified lava, pumice, tephra and ash and is the tallest active volcano in Europe, measuring close to 11,000 feet tall. Etna is in a state of almost perpetual activity, with one of the most recent eruptions - occurring Oct. 26, of this year - culminating in the closure of airspace around Sicily.
© AFP/Fayez Nureldine
A Saudi labourer tries to clear a flooded street in northern Riyadh, on November 17, 2013, after heavy rains fell overnight in the Saudi capital, causing floods and traffic jams.
A Saudi labourer tries to clear a flooded street in northern Riyadh, on November 17, 2013, after heavy rains fell overnight in the Saudi capital, causing floods and traffic jams.
At least three people were reported missing, the state news agency SPA said quoting civil defence spokesman Colonel Abdullah al-Harithi.
He added that authorities assisted dozens of people trapped by the floods, a rare phenomenon to hit the capital of the desert kingdom.
Heavy rains, accompanied by thunderstorms, have lashed Riyadh since late Saturday triggering flash floods in several districts and cutting off power in the city's north, according to residents.
