Earth Changes
As temperatures continue to drop and sea ice continues to grow exponentially at both poles, Antarctica set its coldest March temperature on record: -75.3°C (-103.5°F).
But things are also "heating up", a dramatic increase in both the number of active volcanoes and recorded eruptions has been reported during March, not very good news for an already super-cold upper atmosphere.
From historic bush fires to 'once-in-a-century floods, Australia suffered one of its worst downpours after weather systems converged over Queensland and New South Wales, dumping more than 20 inches of rain in one day north of Brisbane, and nearly 40 inches in a week in New South Wales. Tens of thousands were displaced.
And talking about extreme weather, Taiwan experienced the worst drought in half a century after being hit by record floods during the pasts months.
Sudden downpours also wreaked havoc in parts of Latin America affecting thousands of families. In western Colombia, 60% of normal March rain fell in just 90 minutes, while a month's worth of rain fell in 2 hours in Grande Do Sul, Brazil.
As another example of things charging up in the Earth's upper atmosphere, the first 'space hurricane' with a 1,000 km-wide swirling mass of plasma was revealed by a team led by Shandong University in China, after an analysis of satellite data from August 2014. Formed hundreds of kilometers above the North Pole, these 'hurricanes' in many ways resemble the hurricanes formed in the Earth's lower atmosphere, but in this case, it causes a rain of electrons instead of water. Scientists assume that it must be created by an unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles (from different sources out in space) into the Earth's upper atmosphere.
Keep your eyes on the sky folks, as meteor fireballs are delivering an increasingly stunning and alarming show in recent years.
All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for March 2021:
Residents of St Vincent have been told to leave their homes due to the 'significant increase in the risk of an eruption.'
The government said on Thursday that the danger centres on the La Soufriere volcano in the northern region of the island.
Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said people living in so-called red zones in the northwest and northeast of the island needed to leave immediately as the volcano pumped out more smoke and steam.
"There is now in the country an evacuation order," he said in a message broadcast on social media.
St. Vincent's National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said on Twitter there was now a "substantial prospect of disaster" due to the pick-up in La Soufriere's seismic activity.

Winemakers have been using fire to try and heat their vineyards to save them from frost.
Temperatures plunged as low as -5 degrees Celsius overnight in wine regions including Chablis, in Burgundy, and Bordeaux, which could hurt shoots already well-developed because of earlier mild weather.
Outside Chablis, known around the world for its fruity, acidic white wine, a deep orange glow from tens of thousands of candles hung over the rolling vineyards in the early hours.
Winemaker Laurent Pinson said he had put between 300 and 600 large candles — burning cans of paraffin — across many of his 14 hectares of vines.
"The harvest is at stake over a few nights — one, two or three nights — and if we have no harvest, that means no sales, no wine for consumers," Mr Pinson said.
Kasia Kapusta, 43, spotted the so-called waterspout off the coast at Maroubra Beach on Tuesday morning.
"It looked incredible," she said.
"I've been living in Maroubra for five years and I've never seen anything like it."
Waterspouts are a form of wind vortexes that form over water, scooping up the liquid and dragging it towards the sky.
As we expected, the weather models were not wrong this time. An unpreceded extreme cold has verified across many parts of Europe this Wednesday morning, following the significant and historic snow a day before. Snowfall with some accumulation was reported even at the seaside in Slovenia and Croatia islands (Kvarner area).
In Slovenia, the weather station Nova vas na Blokah hit -20.6 °C and set the new official lowest temperature for April (the previous record at the station Nova vas was -18.0 °C set on April 4th, 1970). There was another record of -26.1 °C recorded with an unofficial weather station in the village Retje near Loški Potok.
Comment: The amazing thing isn't even the record cold - it's the flip from record heat to record cold in just 6 days!
It's the start of the whales' northern migration. The center expects one or two whales to wash ashore in a couple weeks but three within a week is a lot. It's reminiscent of 2019 when there was a high number of whale deaths in the Bay.
In scenic San Francisco Bay lies a sad discovery Wednesday, the carcass of a 33-foot male gray whale.
"These creatures, they are such magnificent creatures and to see them dead like this is really heartbreaking," said Sea Valor CEO/Founder Eric Jones.
Comment: Report from January this year: Nearly 400 Gray Whales have died off the west coast since 2019

Avalanche debris covers two stretches of the Hatcher Pass Road after last weekend’s storm.
Forecasters with the Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center say that five different avalanches crossed the upper stretch of the road, and one of those extended so far that it hit a second, lower stretch of the road, beneath a switchback. The center, in a Facebook post, said that was the first time such a slide had taken place since the 1980s.
Photos posted by the center show ribbons of avalanche debris covering the upper stretch of the road in several areas, as well as massive piles of snow burying large stretches of Archangel Road, which is groomed for skiing and walking during the winter.
The Civil Protection Agency said heavy rainfall began on 02 April 2021. As of 05 April, flash floods and overflowing rivers were reported in Centre, Nord, Nord-Est and Nord-Ouest departments.
One person was killed and 149 homes damaged after floods in Jean-Rabel commune in Nord-Ouest department. Two deaths were recorded in the commune of Bois de Lance in Nord Department, with three people also reported missing. More than 1,270 houses were flooded in the municipalities of Terrier-Rouge, Caracol and Trou-du-Nord in Nord-Ouest. Around 137 families were evacuated in Terrier-Rouge and Caracol.
Comment: Another was filmed in the area on April 8: