Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Icy weather, sleet force over 100,000 to evacuate in southwest China province

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© chongqingtimes.com
Icy weather and sleet have left one person dead and forced the evacuation of 104,900 people from their homes in southwest China's Guizhou Province since the New Year's Day, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Wednesday.

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, the freezing weather had disrupted the lives of more than 4.64 million people in 83 counties of the province, where accumulated ice had caused more than 8,000 homes to collapse, said a statement on the ministry's website.

Economic losses were estimated at 1.28 billion yuan (194 million U.S. dollars).

Bizarro Earth

US: Storm Pounds Boston After Dumping New Snowfall on New York City

A storm that dropped more than 9 inches of new snow on New York City pounded Boston with blizzard conditions, forcing schools to close and disrupting travel.

Twelve to 20 inches of snow may fall on Boston and parts of New England before the storm moves away late today, forecasters said. Boston officials asked non-essential city workers to stay home and urged other businesses to let employees work from home, according to the city website.

More than 2,000 flights were canceled, mostly in the Northeast, according to airline reports compiled by Bloomberg. Amtrak suspended service between New York and Boston after a tree fell on an overhead power line near Sharon, Massachusetts, and the National Weather Service reported downed trees and power lines across the area.

"As the storm bombs out off the New England coast, the winds will pick up and basically create blizzard-like conditions," said Carl Erickson, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.

Cities across the U.S. Northeast deployed thousands of plows and sand-spreaders to tackle the second major snowstorm in a little more than two weeks.

New York City declared a weather emergency, urging people to stay off the roads, as the storm moved in. Public schools remained open.

Bizarro Earth

US: Winter Snowstorm: 'Weather Bomb' Slams Into Northeast

The powerful winter storm that left 11 dead and snarled travel across the Southeast moved overnight in the Northeast.

The "weather bomb" arrived in the Northeast late Tuesday after combining with snow from the Midwest.

Forecasters described this storm as a "weather bomb" -- a fast-moving, severe winter storm where air pressure drops quickly and an unusually far south jet stream brings in moisture, causing heavy snows and winds.


Wolf

Foxes zero in on prey via Earth's magnetic field

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© Judy Wantulok/GettyMagnetised towards prey
It sounds like something a guided missile would do. Foxes seem to zero in on prey using Earth's magnetic field. They are the first animal thought to use the field to judge distance rather than just direction.

Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany, noticed that the foxes he was watching in the Czech Republic almost always jumped on their prey in a north-easterly direction. Given that cows position themselves using Earth's magnetic field, he wondered if something similar was at work.

Foxes jump high into the air before dropping onto prey. Burda's team found that when the foxes could see their prey they jumped from any direction but when prey were hidden, they almost always jumped north-east. Such attacks were successful 72 per cent of the time, compared with 18 per cent of attacks in other directions.

All observers saw the same thing, but Burda remained baffled, until he spoke to John Phillips at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Phillips has suggested that animals might use Earth's magnetic field to measure distance.

Life Preserver

Australia: Disaster in Brisbane as water keeps coming

flood, Brisbane
© ABC News / Giulio SagginThe CBD in Brisbane was a ghost town on Wednesday.
Brisbane residents have been told it is not too late to evacuate as a once-in-a-century flood threatens 20,000 homes tonight.

More than 50 suburbs are expected to be flooded when the Brisbane River hits an expected peak of 5.2 metres at about 4:00am on Thursday.

Already thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after the swollen river burst its banks and rose past 4 metres on Wednesday.

Premier Anna Bligh is warning despite a slight revision in the expected flood peak, Brisbane residents are going to wake up to a scene of widespread devastation.

"We will wake tomorrow to an image of Brisbane ... that will shock many of us and I do say to people that we need to be ready for that," she said.

Igloo

Major Winter Storm Wallops U.S. Northeast

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© David Tulis/Athens Banner-HeraldSteven Smith, president of Verity Bank, shovels snow and ice from the bank parking lot in Winder, Ga., after a weekend snowstorm.
The U.S. Northeast was hit by its second major winter storm of the season, which was expected to dump up to a foot of snow on New York City by Wednesday evening and create chaos for commuters and travelers.

Airlines pre-emptively canceled hundreds of flights and companies were advising some employees to work from home, while oil prices jumped 2 percent on expectations the cold weather would boost demand for heating oil.

The storm could give New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg a chance to make up for his much-criticized response to the blizzard that paralyzed New York less than two weeks ago.

He declared a weather emergency late Tuesday that urged the public to avoid driving, granted authorities the right to tow cars blocking snow plows and allowed emergency services to "take all appropriate and necessary steps" to ensure safety.

"We didn't do the job that New Yorkers rightly expect of us in the last storm and we intend to make sure that that does not happen again," Bloomberg told a news conference.

Bizarro Earth

US: Dozens Of Dead Birds Found Near Sullivan, Missouri


Dozens of dead birds are discovered near Sullivan, Missouri about an hour southwest of St. Louis. People in and around Sullivan are calling the whole thing a little weird. The scene is just east of Sullivan along the I-44 south service road at Winsel Creek. The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking into the situation.

It was discovered on Monday.

Experts there and with the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park say the dead birds are Starlings. Starlings are among the dead birds that have been found in several other states recently.

It started new years when thousands of Red Winged Blackbirds were found dead in Arkansas.

The reason why all of this is happening is still unclear but a spokesperson with Missouri Department of Conservation does have some theories.

Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: US: Snow In 49 States Right Now (MAP)

A map of snowfall in the United States is revealing right now: 49 states have snow on this 1/11/11 and only one does not.

From the southern snow storm heading north, which is affecting air travel, to the pending storm in New York City, and flurries out west, there's plenty of white stuff going around.

The lone state without a flake? It's the Sunshine State...Florida. Locals are celebrating the fact, though interestingly, parts of the state saw snow just days ago.

Even Hawaii has snow, in Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

Have a look at the map for yourself:

map
© Google
CNN meteorologist Angela Fritz calls this "extremely unusual," though notes that statistics aren't generally kept on how many states have snow at the same time.

Gear

Spin, Span, Spun: Now it's "Climate Challenges"

spin span spun graphic
© wattsupwiththat.com
The term "climate change" could be replaced by "climate challenges" if a federal commissioned marketing study is taken onboard.

The study of attitudes to climate change among farmers, commissioned by the Agriculture Department, found only 27 per cent of those surveyed believed human activity was causing climate change, compared with 58 per cent of urban dwellers.

As well, primary producers are "very resistant to carbon trading". "It fills them with dread, and there were strong negative reactions towards it," the report says.

Handed to the department late last year, the report warns that terminology that fails to take into account the attitude of primary producers towards human-induced climate change risks failure. The term "climate change" sets up negative reactions among primary producers for a number of reasons, from scepticism through to perceptions that they are being held solely responsible for causing climate change, it says.

"Preferred terms such as 'climate challenges', 'prolonged drought' and 'risk management' are accepted, better understood and more likely to motivate change."

Cloud Lightning

Residents to be Evacuated as Mt. Anak Krakatau Spews Ash

Anak Krakatau
© Volcano World/Robert W. DeckerAnak Krakatau
The South Lampung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) is set to evacuate tens of thousands of residents in seven districts in the regency following continuous volcanic ash emissions from Mount Anak Krakatau over the past several days.

South Lampung BPBD head Abdul Shomad said his office had coordinated with the Lampung provincial administration, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency and the Mount Anak Krakatau observation station in Hargopancuran village in South Lampung.

"We have taken anticipatory measures because ash continues to flow, while the seismograph used to monitor Mount Anak Krakatau could not provide data on its activities. This has caused fear among residents," said Shomad on Monday.

The seven districts are Kalianda, Rajabasa, Katibung, Sidomulyo, Ketapang, Sragi and Palas.

Shomad added the South Lampung regency administration had mapped out tsunami-prone areas around the mountain, generally located along coastal areas facing the Sunda Strait, as one anticipatory measure.

"The coordination is aimed at ascertaining the height of the tidal wave in the event of a massive eruption," said Shomad.

As of Monday, volcanic ash from Mount Anak Krakatau is still covering residential areas in parts of Banten province and South Lampung, while the observation posts in Hargopancuran, Rajabasa, South Lampung, and Pasauran, Banten, have not yet been able to monitor volcanic activities because equipment installed around the volcano is still out of order.