Earth Changes

Hundreds of sea urchins washed up on UK beach

The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 23:56 UTC

At first they looked like baseballs or perhaps esoteric vegetables. Finally the hundreds of odd orbs washed up on beaches and have been identified as a species of urchin known as a sea potato.

The sight of hundreds of the objects alarmed holidaymakers in Devon and Cornwall who steered well clear, fearing they could be poisonous. A dog walker, however, was brave enough to take one home as a memento, the Sun reported, before throwing it into the bin as a precaution.

Scientists have identified the objects as sea potatoes, a sea urchin which can grow up to three inches in diameter and able to survive in waters up to 650 feet deep. They have been dubbed sea potatoes because of their dried brownish yellow shells.

Hundreds of the urchins were washed up on the beach between Penzance and Marion on Wednesday night. The last time as many appeared on land was in May 1995. The sea potatoes or Echinocardium cordatum, to give the urchin its scientific name, lives in sand burrows and are commonplace on some sandy beaches.

"You get lots of them on Torbay main beach, for example," told the Guardian. "They are related to starfish and usually covered with little spines."

Mass strandings were not particularly rare, he added.

"I think such things happen from time to time and are entirely natural - bit like bushfires."

Photo captures waterspout at Donner Lake, California

kcra.com
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 19:06 UTC

A water spout was spotted on Donner Lake on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016

A water spout was spotted at Donner Lake Thursday as thunderstorms moved through the Sierra.

Jeremy Jensen posted a photo of the water spout on his Facebook page. He said the spout picked up a paddle boat and knocked two children into the water. The children were okay, he said.

The spout formed around 4:30 p.m. near Chine Cove at the lake, Jensen said.

KCRA's Mark Finan reported Doppler looked quiet at the time, but there were thunderstorms over the area earlier.

"Nature is wild, I've never seen something like this in Truckee," Jensen said on Facebook.

Record year for cetacean strandings in Ireland as fin whale washes up on Dublin beach

Barry Arnold
Dublin Live
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:55 UTC

A whale has washed up at Shankill Beach amid windy conditions in south Dublin.

In this video, the whale, roughly 25 feet long, appears to be dead as it sits in shallow water after being pushed inland in the bad weather and rough sea conditions.

The mammal, believed to be a milky white whale, was first spotted off the coast of Wicklow on Thursday evening.

A video of the floating body has been posted online via Twitter.

@BrayPeople whale washed up on Shankill beach, huge, sad pic.twitter.com/dYooL6z6UZ

— barbeldearbra (@barbeldearbra) 19 August 2016

Comment: According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group,

Together with four other strandings received in the last couple of days, this brings the total of strandings received by IWDG so far in 2016 to 152, the highest on record for any year to this date.

Large waterspout filmed off coast of Outer Banks, North Carolina

Emily Satchell
WAVY
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 23:45 UTC

Several WAVY News viewers sent in photos and video of what appears to be a waterspout seen off the coast of the Outer Banks Thursday. People reported seeing the waterspout in the Nags Head, Wanchese and Oregon Inlet areas.

There weren't any thunderstorm warnings or tornado warnings issued for the area Thursday. Chief Meteorologist Don Slater said the waterspout was likely nothing to worry about. Waterspouts can have strong winds, though, and are capable of throwing lightweight outdoor objects around, like umbrellas or lawn furniture. However, waterspouts often fall apart when they make landfall.

Storms did move through the Outer Banks Thursday evening, but were mostly contained to the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge area.

'Upside-down rainbow' (circumzenithal arc) spotted above Salford, UK

Tom Rodgers
Salford Online
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:10 UTC

Settled skies and warm weather combined this week to produce a minor meteorological phenomenom: the 'upside-down rainbow'.

Adam Davies captured this image of the inverted coloured curve while sitting out in his garden in Sportside Avenue, Walkden. Known as a 'Bravias arc', it's not technically a rainbow as it's produced when light from the sun is refracted through ice crystals, rather than raindrops.

High up among the cirrus clouds, water droplets turn to ice. It's here where light refracts through tiny hexagonal ice crystals, which bends the wavelength of the light and makes it appear inverted to the human eye.

The spectrum of colours is only produced under special atmospheric conditions: when the air high up above us is relatively still, and when the sun is shining down at an angle less than 32 degrees from the horizon.

Comment: And it appears to be happening more often because part of the 'special atmospheric conditions' include increased particulates in the atmosphere, i.e. increased volcanic ash/dust and 'meteor smoke' debris left by meteor fireballs exploding in the atmosphere.

Adam used his HTC One M9 smartphone to capture the image. "You could also see a kind of halo ring effect around the sun - I've never seen it shining that bright before," he said.

Portugal's August wildfires make up half of EU's 2016 total

Fox News
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:11 UTC

Authorities say a series of wildfires this month in Portugal has burned more than half of the land lost to blazes in the entire 28-nation European Union so far this year.

The EU's Forest Fire Information System, which collates wildfire data, says wildfires have charred more than 217,000 hectares (536,200 acres) in the bloc in 2016.

Almost 116,000 hectares (286,600 acres) of the charred forest land is in Portugal, the agency told The Associated Press.

Four people have died in the country's worst wildfires in recent memory.

However, Portuguese emergency services reported Wednesday that cooler temperatures and a drop in wind strength gave fire crews some respite after two weeks of battling intense flames.

Comment: Over 700 forest wildfires break out in Portugal

After researchers declare coral reef 'dead' in 2003, biologists discover it alive again in 2015

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 14:35 UTC

From the "global warming and ocean acidification will kill everything, forever" and the "nature always finds a way" department comes this inconvenient truth.

Back From The Dead: Giant Coral Reef That 'Died' In 2003 Teeming With Life Again

In 2003, researchers declared Coral Castles dead.

On the floor of a remote island lagoon halfway between Hawaii and Fiji, the giant reef site had been devastated by unusually warm water. Its remains looked like a pile of drab dinner plates tossed into the sea. Research dives in 2009 and 2012 had shown little improvement in the coral colonies.

Colorado firefighter films wildfire-fueled firenado near Beaver Creek, Colorado

Ben Hooper
UPI
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 13:30 UTC

'Firenado'

A firefighter battling a Colorado wildfire captured footage of a wind-fueled firenado spinning a column of flames into the sky.

The firenado, also known as a fire tornado or fire whirl, was photographed Sunday by Charles "Trey" Bolt of the Beaver Creek Fire Department Engine 1419.

The department posted the photo to Facebook and later followed up with Bolt's video of the spinning column of flames.

"One of our firefighters captured this fire whirl yesterday on the ‪#‎BeaverCreekFire‬. Wow!" the post said.

The Beaver Creek Fire has burned through nearly 57 square miles since it began June 19. The fire is 44 percent contained, firefighters said.

The unusual phenomenon was caught on video just days after firefighters in Oregon captured footage of a similar firenado swirling on the border of the town of Cornelius.

Massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake near South Georgia island

Tom Evans
Daily Star (UK)
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 12:41 UTC

SHAKEN: The quake's epicentre hit the British islands of South Georgia

A 7.3 magnitude earthquake is described as "very strong" by seismologists.

The quake struck the South Georgia island region at a depth of about 10 kilometres, according to the USGS.

The islands host a British Antarctic research station - around 1,500 miles east of the Falklands.

It was the centre of British whaling for decades until the trade was abandoned in the 1960s.

There were reports of tremors in the nearby Falkland Islands.

No immediate tsunami warning was issued.

It comes just months after a 7.2 magnitude quake struck the South Sandwich Islands.