Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 27 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Cloud Lightning

Lightning strike kills mountain goat at wildlife park in Kaslo, British Columbia


Kamloops This Week
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 18:12 UTC
lightning
© MGN
BC Wildlife Park staff are mourning the loss of mountain goat Gustav, who was struck and killed by lightning during Tuesday's thunderstorm.

"It is with incredibly heavy hearts that we share the devastating news," wildlife park staff wrote on their Facebook page. "This tragedy has left the entire BC Wildlife Park team in shock and disbelief."

Gustav was found wandering alone on May 21, 2018, by the owners of the Wing Creek Resort in the west Kootenay town of Kaslo.

The orphaned mountain goat was eventually transferred by the BC Conservation Service to the BC Wildlife Park's rehabilitation centre.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills at least 1,311 in 4 months across India this year - 6,555,000 strikes recorded

Amitabh Sinha
The Indian Express
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:44 UTC
lightning
© MGN
Lightning strikes have caused at least 1,311 deaths in the four-month period between April and July this year, according to a first-of-its-kind report on lightning incidents in India. It has been prepared by Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council (CROPC), a non-profit organisation that works closely with India Meteorological Department (IMD). UP accounted for 224 of these deaths, followed by Bihar (170), Odisha (129) and Jharkhand (118).

What has the report found?

It counted 65.55 lakh* lightning strikes in India during this four-month period, of which 23.53 lakh (36 per cent) happened to be cloud-to-ground lightning, the kind that reaches the Earth. The other 41.04 lakh (64 per cent) were in-cloud lightning, which remains confined to the clouds in which it was formed.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Amazon is on fire, but are we DOOMED? What's behind the climate catastrophe headlines

Graham Dockery
RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 16:34 UTC
amazon fire
© REUTERS/Gregg Newton/FILE GN
The Amazon is burning, the planet is heating, and it seems like the four horsemen of the climate change apocalypse are knocking at our door. But just how right are the prophets of ecological doom?

The Amazon rainforest is ablaze. Wildfires have increased by 83 percent this year on last, with nearly 80,000 individual fires spotted by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. Fires in this region are typically started by farmers every year to clear overgrown land for grazing and replanting, but the extent of this year's inferno has captured the attention of the global media like never before.

"Our home is burning," tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron, promising to make the "emergency" top of the agenda at last month's G7 summit. Macron was joined by US lawmakers, presidential candidates, climate activists, and much of the world's news outlets, who blamed the pro-industrial policies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for accelerating the forest's demise.

Comment: One need only watch SOTT's monthly Earth Changes weather roundup to understand the alarming and extreme weather that hits all corners of the planet. But politicians and activists are choosing to focus on media-created "catastrophes" like the Amazon fires in order to further their agenda of government intervention into the everyday lives of people. It's the wrong way to deal with climate change.

Watch SOTT's August Earth Changes summary:



      Read More...
Sun

Sun halo seen in the skies of Tura, India


The Shillong Times
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 14:33 UTC
Citizens of Tura were treated to a spectacular view of the morning sky on Thursday when a solar halo (also known as a sun rainbow) appeared in the sky around 11 am on Thursday leaving many awestruck with the beauty of our world.

A rare moment for Tura, this spectacular celestial display occurred shortly after a light drizzle around the foothills of Tura peak.
Sun halo over Tura, India
© Cosmos Sangma
Solar halos are seen as a white ring around the sun or moon. These high altitude cirrus clouds are made of mostly ice crystals which refract the sunlight much like a prism while showing the colors of a rainbow.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Coroner: 2nd woman dies after lightning strike in cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio


San Diego Union Tribune
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 13:34 UTC
lightning
© MGN
A second woman has died after a lightning strike at a Cincinnati cemetery last weekend.

The Hamilton County Coroner's office says 55-year-old Patricia Herlinger, of Colerain Township, died Wednesday.

Authorities say she was one of three people struck by lightning at Spring Grove Cemetery last Friday.

The coroner's office said 27-year-old Danielle Brosius, of Green Township, died last Friday at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

The president of Spring Grove Cemetery says it was a tragic accident.

Source: AP

Comment: Woman killed by lightning strike while at cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio

      Read More...
Snowflake

Heavy snowfall across Austrian, Italian and French Alps (and it's still summertime!)

Patrick Thorne
Inthesnow.com
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 12:48 UTC
snow italy september
© Passo Gavia / Severe Weather Europe
Winter conditions at Passo Gavia (2621 m), northern Italy, September 8th, 2019
Heavy snowfall has been reported on glaciers in the Alps. The snow is expected to keep falling through the weekend with some areas forecast to get up to 60cm (two feet) of snow up high by Monday.

This morning the Stubai glacier in the Austrian Tirol (pictured), one of those likely to open for its 9-10 month 2019-20 season later this month, said it had had 10cm (4 inches) of fresh snow so far.



Comment: Parts of Switzerland see early heavy snowfall - up to half a metre

      Read More...
Snowflake

Parts of Switzerland see early heavy snowfall - up to half a metre


Swissinfo.ch
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 12:10 UTC
Andermatt
© Pascal Schaer
Andermatt, Switzerland
Snow has arrived in Switzerland, with places in the Alps reporting snowfall down to 1,400 metres. Some passes and routes have been disrupted.

The most snow fell in the Gotthard region, according to SRF Meteo, the German-language national broadcaster's weather service.

Snowfall in the mountains in early September is quite normal, said Sabine Balmer from SRF Meteo. It can even snow down to 1,500 metres during July and August. But such early snow has become increasingly rare in recent years, she added.

Up to half a metre of snow fell above 2,000 metres elevation, whereas lower down, the Alpine resorts of Andermatt and Sedrun were covered in white on Friday morning.



Comment: September snowfall begins in the Austrian and Italian Alps

      Read More...
Seismograph

Shallow magnitude 5.9 earthquake strikes off Oregon coast - second in a week

Tyler Willford
That Oregon Life
Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:39 UTC
quake
The quake 192 miles off the coast was at a depth of about 7.5 miles. It follows a 6.3 earthquake off the southern Oregon coast a week ago.

According to the latest news reports, at around 8 a.m. a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck 177 miles west-northwest of Bandon, Oregon. Also reported was a 3.7 magnitude quake shortly before, detected around 7:25 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Comment: Magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes off coast of Oregon

      Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Flooding causes 2 more deaths in Morocco


Floodlist
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 19:23 UTC
flood
More flooding has affected areas of Morocco, this time in the regions of Marrakesh-Safi and Béni Mellal-Khénifra.

Local media report that 2 people died after a storm, heavy rain and floods in the province of Khenifra, Béni Mellal-Khénifra Region, on 02 September, 2019.

One person died as a result of wind damage in M'Rirt. The second victim was swept away by flood water in Sidi Hcine.


Comment: At least seven people die in flash floods in southern Morocco

      Read More...
Attention

Insect 'apocalypse' in US driven by increase in toxic pesticides

Stephen Leahy
National Geographic
Tue, 06 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
bees
© National Geographic
Bees, butterflies, and other insects are under attack by the very plants they feed on as U.S. agriculture continues to use chemicals known to kill.
America's agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One.

This enormous rise in toxicity matches the sharp declines in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators as well as birds, says co-author Kendra Klein, senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth US.

"This is the second Silent Spring. Neonics are like a new DDT, except they are a thousand times more toxic to bees than DDT was," Klein says in an interview.

Using a new tool that measures toxicity to honey bees, the length of time a pesticide remains toxic, and the amount used in a year, Klein and researchers from three other institutions determined that the new generation of pesticides has made agriculture far more toxic to insects. Honey bees are used as a proxy for all insects. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does the same thing when requiring toxicity data for pesticide registration purposes, she explained.

Comment: Read more about the effects neonicotinoids have on the bee population (a keystone species in the food chain)
It's often said that we have bees to thank for one out of every three bites we take of food. In addition to producing honey, honeybees literally criss-cross the United States, pollinating almonds, oranges, melons, blueberries, pumpkins, apples, and more. And while carrots are a biennial root crop that are harvested long before they flower, all carrots are planted from seed, and honeybees pollinate the carrot flowers that produce the seeds. Other species of bees, both social and solitary bees, pollinate other crops. And the populations of all these species of bees are in decline...


      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts