The muggy, humid weather is making the Southern California coastline feel like a tropical getaway — and even exotic birds are making their way here for vacation.
A handful of Booby birds have been spotted off of Long Beach and Dana Point in recent days by boaters who have captured images of the rare sightings.
The report from Dana Point came Thursday, July 25, by boat Capt. Frank Brennan, who was out on a fishing charter aboard the vessel Reel Fun.
Brennan said he immediately recognized it was one of the tropical species — either a Nazca or Masked Booby — and took a photo to share with bird expert Robin Lowe, who later identified the bird as a Nazca Booby.
Although displacement caused by severely adverse weather conditions seems the most plausible explanation in most cases, the following extract from a 2015 report of a brown booby turning up near Cape Race in Canada, indicates that at least some of these seabirds had been getting lost due to other factors:
Most historic records of brown boobies north of the Florida Keys are hurricane waifs. However, about three years ago brown boobies started doing odd things. They started appearing in the northeast United States without an obvious explanation. These were not storm driven birds, but individuals flying north of their own free will. One even reached the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. And the first for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador landed on a tour boat just off St. Anthony.
An eruption occurred on Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy on Saturday morning (July 27), sending a large plume of ash into the sky.
"During the late morning a new fracture has opened on the southern flank of the southeast crater accompanied with a massive emission of ash," the filmer wrote online.
In some spots, the bubble plumes are plentiful enough to resemble florescent lace curtains in the glow of a camera deployed by NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research.
Adding to the spectacle: The bubbles rise amid "dense" beds of mussels that are seen in a video stretching as far as the camera lens could penetrate.
The bubbles are methane gas, seeping constantly from the ocean floor off Bodie Island, at a depth of about 1,300 feet, according to a report by the NOAA-backed team.
Comment: In recent times hundreds of methane plumes have been discovered erupting along the US Atlantic coast, as well as for the first time in deep Arctic Ocean areas.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck near the south coast of Japan's island of Honshu early on Sunday (Jul 28), the European earthquake monitoring service EMSC reported.
The estimated population of the area where the earthquake was felt is 30 million inhabitants, EMSC said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
California is being hit by a "plague of rats", and some commentators are suggesting that this is exactly what they deserve. In fact, some have even gone so far as to suggest that the name of Los Angeles should be formally changed to "Los Ratas" because the rat problem is so severe there. From Crescent City in the north all the way down to Chula Vista in the south, the rats are seemingly everywhere. There are millions of them, and the more poison that people put out the more they seem to multiply. The state of California has never seen anything like this before, and it is getting worse with each passing month.
Pest control and public health experts are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a public health emergency over what they say is a sharp rise in the state's rodent population.
"California is being overrun by rodents - and without immediate emergency action by state and local government, we face significant economic costs and risk a public health crisis," said Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, at a news conference Tuesday at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
Our grasshopper problem in the valley is far from over. In fact, it may be getting worse.
On Thursday night, thousands of grasshoppers were seen swarming on the Las Vegas Strip. Thousands of people saw them the day after in videos that have now gone viral.
When a 13 Action News crew went back to the Strip on Friday, they found thousands of grasshoppers still in the same spots where they were seen on Thursday night.
Robert W. Felix Ice Age Now Thu, 25 Jul 2019 18:46 UTC
This was "long before industry emitted significant amounts of carbon dioxide," writes Steve Goreham.
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According to NOAA, "23 of the 50 state record high temperatures were recorded during the 1930s," says Goreham. "Thirty-six of the 50 state record highs occurred prior to 1960."
But never mind such inconvenient facts.
Seventy-four US medical and public health groups released a "U.S. Call to Action" last month, in which they declared climate change to be a "true public health emergency." They also claimed that we urgently need to transition away from hydrocarbon energy and a move to a low-carbon economy.
"(Trouble is), "actual weather and health trends don't support either the alarm or the demanded actions."
Robert W. Felix Ice Age Now Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:45 UTC
The largest number of record low temperatures came in the Magadan region.
On July 24 in Susuman was -4.1°C, the previous record of -3.5°C was observed in 1973.
In Seimtchane was -2.9°C, which is lower than the previous record by 0.5 degrees set 28 years ago.
In Brokhovo, the new absolute low for July 24 is +4°C, which is lower than the previous record by 0.6 for 1973.
In Talon -1.4°C, the former absolute low of -0.6°C was observed in the 1973.
Comment: With most media outlets exclusively and almost hysterically focused on the record-breaking hot temperatures being recorded this July, it's also of equal (or maybe greater?) significance that many new records are also being set at the other (cold) extreme, see these reports for the same month:
The flood situation remained grim in Bihar with the death toll climbing to 127 on Friday, even as the Nitish Kumar government said it will be writing to the Centre for help in the wake of the calamity which has affected over 80 lakh people in the state.
Two deaths each were reported from Darbhanga and Kishanganj districts, the state Disaster Management Department said in a release.
The total number of casualties in Darbhanga now stands at 12 and seven in Kishanganj.
Thirteen districts in the state are hit by the floods, which have affected 82.84 lakh people till date, the release stated.
Hundreds of passengers in India spent over 15 hours without food or drinking water after their train got stuck in a giant lake created by torrential rain. Army and navy units were deployed to the scene.
The long-distance Mahalaxmi Express left Mumbai for Kolhapur in India's western coastal Maharashtra state on Friday night, but managed to travel just 60km before getting stuck in the downpour. Around 700 passengers instantly became stranded as the field in which the train stopped turned into a large lake.
The trapped travelers recorded cellphone videos, pleading for help. They told local media that they had no food or drinking water for 15 hours. The passengers also said the train was surrounded from all sides by five to six feet of water.
Comment: The last 2 years or so has seen a notable number of these extralimital records of tropical seabirds in North America, presumably for the most part due to the increasingly chaotic weather, here's a list of such reports: Bird from the tropics, the brown booby, seen for first time in New Hampshire
Wrong place, wrong time: Tropical seabird turns up at Point Pelee, Ontario
Rare sighting of frigatebird in Wausau, Wisconsin, a likely hurricane refugee
Rare red-billed tropicbird turns up in Gulf Breeze, Florida
Wrong place, wrong time: Nazca Booby from the Galapagos Islands turns up at Dana Point, Califorina
Although displacement caused by severely adverse weather conditions seems the most plausible explanation in most cases, the following extract from a 2015 report of a brown booby turning up near Cape Race in Canada, indicates that at least some of these seabirds had been getting lost due to other factors: