Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Flossie upgraded to Category 4

HONOLULU - Hurricane Flossie strengthened to a Category 4 storm Saturday as it spun more than 1,000 miles south of Hawaii.

The hurricane could pass by Hawaii late Tuesday or early Wednesday, forecasters said, but by then cooler waters should weaken Flossie considerably to a tropical storm.

©Accuweather

Bizarro Earth

Montana wildfires reaching historic proportions

Depending upon who's talking, this year's fire season has already passed by the 2000 and 2003 seasons as the worst since 1910.



©David Erickson / Whitefish Pilot
Scattered flames mark the eastern boundary of the Skyland Fire near the town of Heart Butte on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation on Aug 1 just after midnight.


That supposition is based on where the state is now with maybe one more month of fires ahead before a good rain or snow finally extinguishes the fires for good.

To make matters worse, seven new lightning-caused fires were detected Tuesday in the Swan Lake area, despite a light rain.

Bizarro Earth

Guatemala's Fire Volcano Spews Lava Near Antigua

Guatemala's Fire Volcano erupted on Thursday, spewing lava, rock and ash near the colonial city of Antigua and some of the Central American country's most famous coffee farms.

©Unknown

Guatemala's volcanology service said seven families were evacuated from their homes near the volcano, about 27 miles (50 km) southwest of Guatemala City. The villagers were unharmed, an official said.

Cloud Lightning

Heavy rain brings chaos across Switzerland

Two days of torrential rain have left large parts of northwestern Switzerland and the central plateau region under water.

©Keystone
The River Aare flooded parts of Olten in northern Switzerland.

By Thursday evening the levels of most affected lakes and rivers appeared to have peaked, but the situation in many areas, particularly along the River Aare, remained critical.

©Keystone
The River Sarneraa burst its banks at Sarnen in canton Obwalden.

The storms, the worst since the severe floods of 2005, led to chaos on the roads, with many closed as a result of flooding or landslides. Rail traffic was also hit.

Cloud Lightning

Giant storm ravages Manitoba, Canada

Roofs, windows and vehicles were damaged -- and a horse was killed -- as a severe thunderstorm coupled with high winds and hail the size of softballs drove across a large swath of southern Manitoba yesterday and Thursday night.

©Bev Birss
Hailstones measuring as large as 10 centimetres in diameter fell on Dauphin, Man., during the late-evening storm.

The storm left thousands of people without power, closed a provincial park and two golf courses near Winnipeg, forced campers at the Birds Hill Provincial Park to flee their tents, and knocked over thousands of trees.

Stop

Glaciers wasting away on Mexico's peak

Glaciers that crown Mexico's tallest mountains and inspired Aztec legends of lost love and a snake god could disappear within a few decades, with scientists pointing to global warming as a cause of their demise.

©Mexico-ecotourism
Orizaba Peak's Glacier

Attention

Manchester shaken by earthquake

Manchester was rocked by an earthquake today.

©London Lite
The earthquake in Manchester measured 2.5 on the Richter scale

Better Earth

Ten injured in latest earthquake on Sakhalin

Ten persons have sought medical assistance in Nevelsk on Sakhalin Island after the Sunday morning earthquake measuring four points on the Richter scale.

Bizarro Earth

Indian Village Under Water Since 1995 and still no help

Thousands of villages in India's Bihar state have been flooded for the last two weeks, but one hamlet has been under at least a foot of water for the last 12 years. Since 1995, Barabih residents have either got used to living with floods, or left. In fact about 75 percent of the population has fled, leaving behind 1,400 hardy souls.

©AFP
Experts blame the plight of villages like Barabih on the haphazard construction of anti-flood embankments in Bihar, which has a reputation as one of India's most lawless, corrupt and impoverished states. In 1952, Bihar had 160 kilometres of embankments and the flood-prone area was 2.5 million hectares, said development expert Eklavya Prasad. "But by 2002 the state developed 3,430 kilometres of these structures and the flood-prone area extended up to 6.88 million hectares," Prasad told The Hindustan Times.

Bell

Indonesian Quake Could Trigger Volcanic Activity

A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake that shook Indonesia's main island of Java early Thursday, including the capital Jakarta, could trigger activity at some of the island's many volcanoes, experts said. The undersea quake, centred about 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of the capital Jakarta and off the north coast of Java, occurred just after midnight (1700 GMT), rattling buildings and sending panicked residents onto the streets.