Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

South of Fiji Islands - Earthquake Magnitude 6.3

Fiji Islands Quake_281210
© USGSEarthquake Location.
Date-Time:
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at 08:34:17 UTC

Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at 08:34:17 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
23.375°S, 179.794°W

Depth:
551.6 km (342.8 miles)

Region:
SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

Distances:
320 km (200 miles) SSW of Ndoi Island, Fiji

535 km (330 miles) WSW of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga

610 km (380 miles) SSE of SUVA, Viti Levu, Fiji

1590 km (980 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand

Igloo

US: Massive Winter Storm Could Bring Snow Flurries To Phoenix!

Valley residents may be saying goodbye to 2010 with rain and even snow! A massive winter storm will move in Wedneday bringing rain, snow and a huge blast of cold air to Arizona. Snow levels will start out around 5000 feet on Wednesday before dropping to 2000 feet by Thursday after the cold front arrives. That means some spots in the foothills surrounding the Valley could see snow including places like Cave Creek, Carefree and New River. Globe could even pick up as much as 6" of snow.

Up north, Winter Storm Watches are now in effect from 7 a.m. Wednesday through 12 noon Thursday above 5000 feet. Right now, we are expecting anywhere from 8-16" of snow above 6000 feet and about 4-10" from 5000 to 6000 feet. That cold front will be bringing some very strong winds (gusts near 40 mph) to Northern Arizona too. So, blowing/drifting snow will make travel in the high country very difficult Wednesday and Thursday. As our skies clear out late Thursday, temperatures will plummet!


Bizarro Earth

Snowstorm from Space: Satellite Image of the US Blizzard

The great blizzard of December 2010 is winding down today (Dec. 27), and a new satellite image shows the powerful storm from space. On Monday, Dec. 27 at 12:31 p.m. ET, the GOES-13 satellite captured this visible image of the powerful low pressure system that brought a blizzard to the Northeast and snow from Georgia to Maine. Some of the snowfall can be seen over South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southeastern New York. The clouds of the low obscure New England in the image.

Image
© NOAA/NASA GOES Project
The powerful low-pressure system brought blizzard conditions from northern New Jersey to Maine over Christmas weekend. The GOES-13 satellite captured an image of the storm's center off the Massachusetts coast and also shows the snowfall left behind.

As of 1:30 p.m. EST, all blizzard warnings were canceled as the low has pulled much of its snow and rain away from land areas and into the North Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA. Winds behind the system are now causing more problems for residents along the U.S. East coast. Gusts were recorded as high as 80 mph.

Igloo

US: Snowbound New Yorkers Upset About Unplowed Streets

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© AP PhotoA girl walks by an abandoned snow plow.
A windy winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City also whipped up criticism about how the city responded to it.

Some New Yorkers in the outer boroughs complained that the city took too long to plow their neighborhoods, ignoring them in favor of wealthier Manhattan areas.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the fast pace of snowfall - 2 to 3 inches per hour at some periods overnight - and the amount of people who abandoned cars in the road delayed the progress of the plows.

"Those cars have to be towed before plowing can resume, which really slows things up," he said.

Officials said crews were concentrating on main roadways and warned that side streets might not be cleared until Tuesday.

For the record, the city deployed 1,600 plows for a snowstorm that delivered 20.9 inches in February, as measured in Central Park. For this latest winter blast - which dropped 20 inches - 1,700 plows, plus 365 salt spreaders that were converted into plows, were working on the streets.

Camera

Captured on Camera: Photos of the 2010 US East Coast 'Snowicane'

Thousands of travelers trying to get home after the holiday weekend sat bored and bleary-eyed in airports and shivered aboard stuck buses and subway trains Monday, stranded by a blizzard that slammed the Northeast with more than 2 feet of show.

Snowfall totals included a foot in Tidewater, Va., and Philadelphia, 29 inches in parts of northern New Jersey, 2 feet north of New York City, and more than 18 inches in Boston.

The storm closed all three of the New York metropolitan area's airports and stymied most other means of transportation. Buses sputtered to a halt in snow drifts. Trains stopped in their tracks. Taxi drivers abandoned their cabs in the middle of New York's snow-clogged streets. Even the New York City subway system - usually dependable during a snowstorm - broke down in spots, trapping riders for hours.
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© weather.com

Crusader

The Abiding Faith Of Warm-ongers

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© UnknownFreezing weather: Just another example of global warming?
Nothing makes fools of more people than trying to predict the weather. Whether in Los Angeles or London, recent predictions have gone crazily awry. Global warming? How about mini ice age?

The sight of confused and angry travelers stuck in airports across Europe because of an arctic freeze that has settled across the continent isn't funny. Sadly, they've been told for more than a decade now that such a thing was an impossibility - that global warming was inevitable, and couldn't be reversed.

This is a big problem for those who see human-caused global warming as an irreversible result of the Industrial Revolution's reliance on carbon-based fuels. Based on global warming theory - and according to official weather forecasts made earlier in the year - this winter should be warm and dry. It's anything but. Ice and snow cover vast parts of both Europe and North America, in one of the coldest Decembers in history.

A cautionary tale? You bet. Prognosticators who wrote the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, global warming report in 2007 predicted an inevitable, century-long rise in global temperatures of two degrees or more. Only higher temperatures were foreseen. Moderate or even lower temperatures, as we're experiencing now, weren't even listed as a possibility.

Since at least 1998, however, no significant warming trend has been noticeable. Unfortunately, none of the 24 models used by the IPCC views that as possible. They are at odds with reality.

Oscar

Propaganda Alert! Bundle Up, It's Global Warming

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© Chris Hondros/Getty ImagesFed up with all this BS? A traveler waits with her bags for check in to a flight at Terminal 4, JFK airport, as levels of snow not seen since two centuries ago fall on northern hemisphere
The earth continues to get warmer, yet it's feeling a lot colder outside. Over the past few weeks, subzero temperatures in Poland claimed 66 lives; snow arrived in Seattle well before the winter solstice, and fell heavily enough in Minneapolis to make the roof of the Metrodome collapse; and last week blizzards closed Europe's busiest airports in London and Frankfurt for days, stranding holiday travelers. The snow and record cold have invaded the Eastern United States, with more bad weather predicted.

All of this cold was met with perfect comic timing by the release of a World Meteorological Organization report showing that 2010 will probably be among the three warmest years on record, and 2001 through 2010 the warmest decade on record.

Comment: Based on what data? NOAA and NASA satellite data:

US Official: Satellite Failure Means Decade of Global Warming Data Doubtful

How can we reconcile this? The not-so-obvious short answer is that the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes. Last winter, too, was exceptionally snowy and cold across the Eastern United States and Eurasia, as were seven of the previous nine winters.

Comment: No Mr Corporate Spokesman, the reality is, we're freezing because the greed of your buddies at BP tipped the scales, broke the Loop Current, and sent the Jet Stream into a tailspin.


Fish

Is the Gulf Stream Failing? Plummeting water temperatures endanger sea creatures along US Atlantic coast

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© Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesA man walks through blowing snow with his dogs along a beach following a snow storm on December 27, 2010 in Westport, Connecticut. Much of the northeast of the United States is experiencing a major winter storm with blizzard conditions and over a foot of snow expected from Washington, D.C. to New York City.
Thousands of dead starfish that littered a beach near Charleston last weekend are the first signs of what might become a disastrous winter for coastal sea life. They died because water was chilled to a lethal temperature by frigid weather earlier this month.

With coastal waters already hovering near critical lows, biologists worry there might be a mass die-off of shrimp, sea trout and red drum as the season turns cold again.

William Gay, owner of Port Royal Seafood, said he has heard Beaufort crab trappers talk about dead shrimp showing up in their crab pots, but said the cold water hasn't yet affected his business.

S.C. Department of Natural Resources biologists also heard reports of stunned red drum and sea trout.

Though Beaufort County is only about 50 miles south of the starfish die-off, water temperatures have been a bit warmer, and the extra warmth has helped.

"It still gets a lot colder there than it does here," said Larry Toomer, owner of Bluffton Oyster Co. "I don't see any signs that would say it's damaged anything or killed anything so far."

Igloo

US: Atlanta's First White Christmas Since 1882

This is Atlanta's first white Christmas since the Chester Arthur administration. Still believe in Global Warming?


Cloud Lightning

'Snowicane' Paralyzes New York City, Boston as Mammoth Blizzard Rages Through US Northeast

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© AccuWeather.com Facebook fan Scott M.It's like a storm surge only with snow in Bradley Beach, NJ courtesy of "Snowicane II." Mon. Dec., 27, 2010.
A powerful winter storm slammed the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston on Sunday. Through today, the blizzard will bring travel to a standstill along the coastline of northern New England as well.

The storm unleashed around a foot of snow and howling winds in cities and towns from Philadelphia through New York City to Boston as it advanced northward offshore Sunday and Sunday night.

So far New Jersey has been hit with the heaviest snow. As of the storm's conclusion, 31.0 inches of snow buried Jackson, and 31.8 inches of snow have fallen in Elizabeth. Unofficial snowfall measurements of 34 and 35 inches at Brick in the morning would be a New Jersey state record.

Weather Matrix founder Jesse Ferrell has the latest on the amazing storm totals in his blog.