Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 26 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Cloud Lightning

US: Death Toll From Severe Storms Rises to 17

Phillip Rawls
Associated Press
Sat, 16 Apr 2011 11:40 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
A vehicle rests on a tree after an overnight tornado in Tushka, Okla., Friday, April 15, 2011.
Boone's Chapel, Alabama - Vicious storms and howling winds smacked the Deep South, killing at least seven people in Alabama including three family members whose homes were tossed into nearby woods.

In Alabama's Washington County, about 50 miles north of Mobile, a mother and her two children were among those killed, said state emergency management agency director Art Faulkner. One person was reported dead in Mississippi's Greene County.

Combined with earlier reported fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the confirmed death toll had risen to 17 by early Saturday - the nation's deadliest storm of the season.

Henley Hollon said Saturday that his 65-year-old brother, Willard Hollon, lived across the street from him in the Boone's Chapel community about 25 miles from Montgomery. Henley Hollon said Willard Hollon and Willard's two adult children, Steve and Cheryl, were killed when the storms roared through.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

US: 7 killed as storms roar across Alabama; death toll from tornadoes, winds now at 16

Phillip Rawls
The Associated Press
Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:07 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/The Clarioni-Ledger, Brian Albert Broom
Vehicles sit destroyed by wind and debris, Friday, April 15, 2011 in Clinton, Miss. A state of emergency has been declared for 14 Mississippi counties after spring storms swept across the state, spawning suspected tornadoes that left many homes and businesses destroyed and at least three people critically injured.
Vicious storms and howling winds smacked the U.S. South, killing at least seven people in Alabama including three family members whose homes were tossed into nearby woods.

In Alabama's Washington County, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Mobile, a mother and her two children were among those killed, said state emergency management agency director Art Faulkner.

Combined with earlier reported fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the confirmed death toll had risen to 16 by early Saturday - the nation's deadliest storm of the season.

Henley Hollon said Saturday that his 65-year-old brother, Willard Hollon, lived across the street from him in the Boone's Chapel community about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from Montgomery. Henley Hollon said Willard Hollon and Willard's two adult children, Steve and Cheryl, were killed when the storms roared through.

Henley Hollon said he had been watching the weather forecast on television - and thought the worst was over when the winds started to pick up.

"It got up real fast. The lights went out," he said. "We had to feel our way into the hall. It lasted less than a minute."
      Read More...
Sun

Not rare anymore! India: Beholding Sun god with halo around


The Times of India
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:07 UTC
Image
© AP
This photo of a sun halo viewed from behind a street lamp was actually taken in Kolkata on July 5, 2010.
On Friday morning, residents of the city and its suburbs witnessed a natural phenomenon around 11.15 am. A beautiful, bright halo was seen around the sun, forming a perfect circular ring. The rare sighting triggered intense excitement as word on the celestial wonder spread. The ring lasted about an hour, after which it gradually faded away.

According to MP Birla Planetarium director (research & academic) Debiprosad Duari, the angular distance between the sun and the ring was almost 22'. "This celestial feature, that is sometimes known as 22' halo of the sun, occurs due to refraction of light against ice-crystals present in the thin wisp-like strands of clouds in the sky," he said.

Comment: "Rare" sun halos appear to be on increase, lately. And there is a "dustier" reason for it than shiny ice crystals. Take a look at the following articles:

Have You Seen a Sun Halo in Your Area? North Carolina, US: Solar halo continues this afternoon...
Are Ice Crystals Really to Blame? US: Halo Appears Around The Sun Over The Central Savannah River Area
Build-up of cosmic material in the atmosphere? Indonesia: Mysterious halo around the sun sets people wondering
Spectacular sundogs and ice halo seen from Stockholm
Ghana: Halo Appears Around Sun
Swaziland: Panic Over Sun's Strange Appearance
Mysterious Sun Haloes

Our hypothesis is, that the sun is being refracted by the changed atmosphere. That is, a combination of possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

      Read More...
Sun

Are Ice Crystals Really to Blame? US: Halo Appears Around The Sun Over The Central Savannah River Area


WJBF-TV
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:14 UTC
If you looked up in the sky over the CSRA on Thursday afternoon, you might have seen an amazing sight. A halo appeared completely around the sun.


Comment: "Rare" sun halos appear to be on increase, lately. And there is a "dustier" reason for it than shiny ice crystals. Take a look at the following articles:

Have You Seen a Sun Halo in Your Area? North Carolina, US: Solar halo continues this afternoon...
Not rare anymore! India: Beholding Sun god with halo around
Build-up of cosmic material in the atmosphere? Indonesia: Mysterious halo around the sun sets people wondering
Spectacular sundogs and ice halo seen from Stockholm
Ghana: Halo Appears Around Sun
Swaziland: Panic Over Sun's Strange Appearance
Mysterious Sun Haloes

Our hypothesis is, that the sun is being refracted by the changed atmosphere. That is, a combination of possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

      Read More...
Sun

Have You Seen a Sun Halo in Your Area? North Carolina, US: Solar halo continues this afternoon...

Johnny Horne
Fay Observer
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:24 UTC
That solar halo that was hanging overhead when I went to lunch today is still there at 4:40 PM and the prospects for it being with us until around sunset are pretty good.

The high cirrus clouds, made up largely of ice crystals are streaming in from the west this afternoon. The ice in the clouds creates the ring around the sun as sunlight is bent when it passes through the crystals.

sun halo
© Johnny Horne

Comment: "Rare" sun halos appear to be on increase, lately. And there is a "dustier" reason for it than shiny ice crystals. Take a look at the following articles:

Are Ice Crystals Really to Blame? US: Halo Appears Around The Sun Over The Central Savannah River Area
Build-up of cosmic material in the atmosphere? Indonesia: Mysterious halo around the sun sets people wondering
Not rare anymore! India: Beholding Sun god with halo around
Spectacular sundogs and ice halo seen from Stockholm
Ghana: Halo Appears Around Sun
Swaziland: Panic Over Sun's Strange Appearance
Mysterious Sun Haloes

Our hypothesis is, that the sun is being refracted by the changed atmosphere. That is, a combination of possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

      Read More...
Evil Rays

Unusual quake rocks Australia's Barrier Reef coast


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:50 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A low rumbling was felt at Magnetic Island, part of the Great Barrier Reef
Australia's Barrier Reef district was rocked by an unusual 5.2-magnitude earthquake Saturday, but laid-back locals said they had barely felt a thing.

The tremor struck about 3.30pm local time (0530 GMT) about 124 kilometres southeast of Townsville at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey.

A low rumbling was felt at Magnetic Island, a 20-minute ferry ride from the mainland and part of the Great Barrier Reef, according to a hotelier at the All Seasons resort, where it briefly interrupted a wedding on the beach.

"Some of the guests felt a bit of a shake, nothing much. It wasn't major, no-one fell over and nothing was damaged," she said.

"It was just like a shudder, my office backs onto the laundry and I said 'Oh, that was a big spin cycle.' It hasn't stopped the world up here.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Central Africa: Deadly volcano that's one of the most dangerous on Earth... but scientists can't predict when it will erupt as it's in the middle of a war zone


Mail Online
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:20 UTC
Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world - and scientists say it is only a matter of time before it makes the city below a modern day Pompeii.

But they don't know when since, located as it is in the war-torn eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the two mile high cauldron of lava is also one of the least well understood.

At the base of Nyiragongo sprawls Goma, a city of an estimated one million people, numbers swelling by the day as villagers from the countryside seek refuge from rebel and government forces.
Mount Nyiragongo
© Carsten Peter/National Geographic/Speleoresearch
Deadly: Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most deadly volcanos on Earth but has barely been studied because of its dangerous location
Twice in recent years Nyiragongo's eruptions have hit the city, destroying homes and sending residents fleeing. But now, seismologists believe, the risk is not just near the city, but directly beneath it.

For the past 20 years the region has suffered nearly constant warfare, including a spillover from the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

A fragile, often broken peace is maintained by 20,000 United Nations troops, one of the largest peace-keeping missions in the world.
      Read More...
Phoenix

US: Fires sweeping across Texas; firefighter killed

Angela K. Brown
The Associated Press
Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:35 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press / LM Otero
Texas Gov. Rick Perry takes a break from making photos to look at an area burned by wildfires from a jet plane during a low altitude tour of Stonewall County near Swenson, Texas, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.
A day after losing one of their own, firefighters returned to the front lines Saturday to battle wildfires sweeping across hundreds of thousands of acres in Texas that have destroyed dozens of homes.

Strong winds and drought-stricken grasses and shrubs are fueling the fires that forced hundreds of evacuations, including an entire town, and destroyed at least 60 homes on Friday. Firefighters worked overnight as the blazes burned across about 655 sq. miles, according to the Texas Forest Service.

Some of the fires have been burning for a week or more, including three in West Texas that have charred a combined 400,000 acres.

Volunteer firefighter Gregory M. Simmons, 51, died while battling a 3,000-acre blaze Friday afternoon near Eastland, a town about 130 miles west of Dallas, Eastland Mayor Mark Pipkin said. Simmons had been a firefighter for two decades, including 11 years in Eastland, the mayor said.

"Apparently he was overcome by smoke, fell in a ditch and was consumed" by the fire, said Justice of the Peace James King, who pronounced Simmons dead at the scene along a rural road.

No other injuries have been reported.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

US: Tornadoes, storms across South kill at least 10

Suzi Parker
Reuters
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:36 UTC
Image
© EPA
Students look at what is left of their school after the tornado hit the town of Tushka, Oklahoma
Violent storms ripped across the southern U.S. overnight and Friday, killing at least 10 people including three children, and cutting a path of destruction through Little Rock, Ark. and Jackson, Miss., authorities said.

Six of the seven fatalities in Arkansas were caused when uprooted trees smashed into houses, National Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson said.

The trees were falling through houses, Robinson said, adding that he could not recall a time in recent memory when so many fatalities occurred because of fallen trees in Arkansas.

In Oklahoma, two elderly sisters were killed when a tornado hit the double-wide mobile home they occupied, according to school board President Bennie Evans.

Among the dead in Arkansas Friday were two boys, ages 6 and 7, and an 18-month-old girl. The seven-year-old and his mother were killed after a tree fell on their house in Little Rock.

"All I heard was a boom boom," said a neighbor, Jennifer McShane, while surveying the destruction.
      Read More...
Evil Rays

Japan Plant Fuel Melted Partway Through Reactors


NTI
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:29 UTC
Image
© Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images
(Apr. 15) - Abandoned flowers wilt on Tuesday in the exclusion zone surrounding Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Nuclear fuel has melted inside three reactors at the severely damaged facility, says an expert assessment published on Friday

Nuclear fuel has melted in three reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and fallen to the lower sections of their container vessels, raising the specter of overheated material compromising a container and causing a massive radiation release, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan said in a report released on Friday (see GSN, April 15).

The group played down the possibility of a container breach, though, noting that only a small amount of fuel had melted so far and affected material had assumed a granulated structure and remained relatively cool, Kyodo News reported. The six-reactor plant was crippled by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11; the confirmed death toll from the events now exceeds 12,000 people.

The melted fuel was thought to have dispersed uniformly across the lower portions of the containers of reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, making the material highly unlikely to resume the fission process in a "recriticality," according to the organization, which said fuel rods in all three reactors had been harmed. Fuel in the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors has made contact with air, while the No. 3 reactor's rods have remained underwater, the group said.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts