Earth Changes

Multiple earthquakes strike Crete, damaging old buildings and killing one man

Harrison Jones
Metro UK
Mon, 27 Sep 2021 10:30 UTC

At least one person has died and nine others have been injured after the Greek island of Crete was rocked by an earthquake measuring around 6.0 on the Richter scale.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported that the quake in the holiday destination had a depth of just 1.24 miles, and was one of a series felt by locals on Monday morning.

The largest of the quakes struck at around 9.15am local time, before at least nine aftershocks also hit the area.

Greece's climate crisis and civil protection ministry confirmed that local authorities have reported one death and nine people injured so far, following earlier reports that two people were trapped in damaged buildings.

Airport closed as La Palma volcano eruption intensifies

Guillermo Martinez and Jon Nazca
Euronews
Sun, 26 Sep 2021 11:24 UTC

Volcanic explosions spewed red hot lava high into the air on La Palma on Saturday as a new emission vent opened, forcing the small Spanish island to close its airport and preventing some people leaving.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano, which began erupting last Sunday, is entering a new explosive phase. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, Involcan, said the new emission vent that had opened was to the west of the principle vent.

Spanish airport operator Aena said the island's airport had been closed because of the volcano, which has spewed out thousands of tons of lava, destroyed hundreds of houses and forced the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people.

"La Palma airport is inoperative due to ash accumulation. Cleaning tasks have started, but the situation may change at any time," it tweeted.

Late snow falls on low-lying parts of Tasmania, Australia

abc.net.au
Sat, 25 Sep 2021 13:24 UTC

Adventurous Tasmanians headed out to make the most of the snow.

Elevated areas of Tasmania were blanketed in snow overnight, but snowfalls in central Hobart that had been hoped for did not come to pass.

That didn't stop Hobartians enjoying a morning walk in the snow on higher ground.

The Bureau of Meteorology said snow was reported to fall briefly to about 100 metres in the Hobart area late on Friday night, but more significant snowfalls were reported in western and southern suburbs above 200 metres.

Icy, sleet-like showers fell in lower elevations around Hobart on Friday night.

Heavy rains flood roads in Russia's Dagestan

RT
Sat, 25 Sep 2021 13:09 UTC

Traffic on several roads in Russia's Dagestan was halted due to torrential rains that hit three mountainous regions of the republic. In Tsumadinsky district, water came dangerously close to residential buildings and industrial areas.

Watch: Temple elephant goes berserk, throws off mahout sitting on top in Kerala, India

The Indian Express
Sat, 25 Sep 2021 11:05 UTC

While elephants taking part in everyday prayer rituals in Kerala temples is not unusual, a pachyderm left devotees in a state of turmoil after it got agitated and yanked off a man sitting on it. Now, the video of the man narrowly escaping from being trampled under the animal's feet is going viral.

The video doing rounds on social media shows the animal vigorously shaking its body and head, forcing the mahout to fall to the ground. The visibly irked tusker then turned to attack the man, trying to stamp him, however, the man gathered himself and managed to run away quickly.

Lightning strike kills 3 in Uganda

Robert Muhereza
Daily Monitor
Sat, 25 Sep 2021 10:48 UTC

Representative image of a lighting strike.

Three people died on spot after they were struck by lightning at Kamuserwa cell, Nyarurambi ward in Rubanda Town Council, Rubanda District.

The incident happened on Friday at around 5.30PM during a heavy downpour.

The Kigezi regional police spokesman, Mr Elly Maate, identified deceased as; Stanley Sunday Owoyesiga, 63, the headteacher of Golden High School in Rubanda Town Council, Ben Kwikiriza, 16, and Bright Orikiriza, 35, a resident of Karambo village, Muko Sub County in Rubanda District.According to the LCIII chairperson Rubanda town council, Mr Noman Tushabe, all the victims were taking shelter in one place as they planned to visit the home of their friend that had lost a relative.

"We are really worried because these incidents have become common in the Kigezi sub-region. Imagine on Tuesday lightning struck two people dead and injured four others in Kanungu, and before the week ends, it has struck three people and six sheep dead and injured one in Rubanda District. Everyone is now scared," he said.

Gigantic Jet plasma with fireballs near the Virgin Islands

Spaceweather.com
Sat, 25 Sep 2021 09:54 UTC

Lightning on Earth is getting weirder and weirder. On the evening of Sept. 20th, Puerto Rican photographer Frankie Lucena pointed his Sony A7s camera at an offshore electrical storm. This is what he saw:

"This Gigantic Jet plasma event occurred over a very powerful thunderstorm near the Virgin Islands just ahead of Tropical Storm Peter," says Lucena. "I can't believe I was able to capture such amazing details."

Indeed, this is one of the best-ever photos of a Gigantic Jet. Sometimes called "Earth's tallest lightning," because they reach the ionosphere more than 50 miles high, the towering forms were discovered near Taiwan and Puerto Rico in 2001-2002. Since then, only dozens of Gigantic Jets have been photographed. They seem to love storms over water and are famous for surprising passengers onboard commercial aircraft.

Early heavy snowfall in parts of Anchorage, Alaska causes outages - up to 13 inches of snow

Anchorage Daily News
Fri, 24 Sep 2021 19:31 UTC

A downed tree blocks a lane of traffic on Hennings Way in East Anchorage on September 24, 2021.

Snow across the Anchorage area Friday forced school closures, made roads slippery and caused power outages.

By Friday morning, unofficial snow totals included 13 inches on the Upper Hillside and about 4 inches in Eagle River, while much of the west side of Anchorage saw next to nothing, said Alan Shriver a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Anchorage.

The snow was continuing on the east side Friday morning, Shriver said, and was expected to continue mixed with rain throughout the day before tapering off by 8 p.m.

Power outages across the city were caused by the heavy, wet snow falling early in the season while many trees still have leaves -- heavy branches had fallen on lines, said Julie Hasquet, spokeswoman for Chugach Electric Association. Crews were working to restore power Friday morning.

Major floods in Ontario washes over roads

Karen Longwell
BlogTo.com
Thu, 23 Sep 2021 19:06 UTC

As predicted, heavy rainfall pounded the province this week, but some parts of Ontario seemed to get the heaviest blasts, flooding roads and threatening homes.

A special weather statement issued on Tuesday from Environment Canada called for as much as 75 millimetres of rain for parts of Toronto. The city did see its fair share of rain.

A ramp for the westbound Hwy 401 at Hwy 410 was flooded Thursday morning.

And the City of Vaughan announced the Palladini Community Centre would be closed due to extensive flooding.

Floods in Toledo, Spain after severe hailstorm with half a meter of hail

Toledodiario.es
Fri, 24 Sep 2021 18:38 UTC

When not a month has passed since the intense DANA that hit the city of Toledo and surrounding municipalities such as Cobisa, Argés or Guadamur, and for which the Council of Ministers declared Castilla-La Mancha as an area seriously affected by civil protection emergencies (ZAEPC), a strong hail storm caused water reservoirs in different neighborhoods of the regional capital this Wednesday afternoon.

This is the third torrential rain so far in September and which again caused floods through the streets of the Old Town, Palomarejos -at the entrance to the Emergency Service of the Virgen de la Salud Hospital-, Azucaica or the stretch of the TO- 23 that joins the Polígono and Santa Bárbara, where the Don Eugenio and de la Rosa walks returned to relive floods.

As the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) points out, 14.4 millimeters (equivalent to liters per square meter) were recorded in just 10 minutes with the hail storm. This Thursday the AEMET maintains the alert for heavy rains and storms at a yellow level for Toledo.