Earth Changes

All-time low temperature records tumble in Minnesota as jet stream draws brutal Arctic air southward

Cap Allon
Electroverse
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC

During a solar minimum, the jet stream’s usual Zonal Flow (a west–east direction) reverts to more of a Meridional Flow (a north-south direction) which is exaggerated further during a Grand Solar Minimum and explains why regions become unseasonably hot or cold and others unusually dry or rainy.

More all-time low temperatures records tumbled in Minnesota late last week, as the meridional jet stream flow (linked to low solar activity) continues to draw brutal Arctic air anomalously south.

The mercury sank low enough on Thursday, June 13 to prompt frost advisories for the Iron Range, Twin Ports, East Central MN and Douglas County - with both Hibbing and Hayward setting new all-time daily low temperature records:

The city of Hibbing set a new low of -2.2C (28F) on Thursday- beating the previous record of -1.1C (30F) set in 1969 (solar minimum of cycle 19).
While Hayward's new low of -0.6C (31F) smashed the old record of 1.7C (35F) from 2012.

In fact, Thursday was the third day in a row that Hibbing busted the daily low temperature record.

Comment: Ice Age: Reasons to bet on a catastrophically cooling world

As global temperatures, after a short spurt at the end of the last century, have already been showing stagnation or cooling over the last nineteen years or more, the world should now fear the real and detrimental effects of cooling, rather than being hysterical about limited, beneficial or probably now non-existent further warming.

Warmer times are times of success and prosperity for man-kind and for the biosphere. For example during the Roman warm period the climate was warmer and wetter so that the Northern Sahara was the breadbasket of the Roman empire.

But the coming end of the present Holocene interglacial will eventually again result in a mile high ice sheet over much of the Northern hemisphere. As the Holocene epoch is already about 11,000 years old, the reversion to a true ice age is becoming overdue.

That reversion to Ice Age conditions will be the real climate catastrophe.

Florida Keys waterspout forms with boater right underneath

Miami.cbslocal.com
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 18:02 UTC

With all of the recent rain and bad weather we have had recently, it's no surprise someone captured video of a waterspout off Marathon with quite a unique view.

The waterspout, posted on only.miami's Instagram account but originally shot by Dylan Brown, is one of multiple waterspouts reported over the weekend in the Florida Keys.

Sunday rainfall shatters record at Dallas/Fort Worth airport, Texas

Brian James
nbcdfw.com
Sun, 16 Jun 2019 17:46 UTC

Sunday's rain shattered a 51-year-old record by more than an inch

With the two rounds of rain and storms Sunday -- first early in the morning then again in the afternoon -- a record amount of rain fell at DFW Airport.

Since midnight, the airport received 2.42 inches of rain. That shatters the old record of 1.32 inches that fell on June 16, 1968. Records have been kept for the DFW observation point (not always DFW Airport) since 1898.

Birds fall from the sky as temperatures soar in Hyderabad, India

Swathi Vadlamudi
The Hindu
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 17:39 UTC

A bird rescued at Dilsukhnagar.

Lack of spaces to perch and rest causing them to collapse or, worse, drop down dead

Severity of summer has taken a toll not only on human beings but also avian life with temperatures soaring up to 45 degrees or even 47 degrees C in some pockets of the city.

Calls for rescue

Several instances of birds dropping out of exhaustion have been noticed by concerned citizens who alerted animal welfare organisations. "Even yesterday, we received an alert from Dilsukhnagar about an exhausted bird. We rushed a volunteer to check on it. It was rescued and given first aid before it recovered and flew away," says Mahesh Agarwal, general secretary of Bharateeya Prani Mitra Sangh.

Japan earthquake: Tsunami warning issued after 6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes near Niigata

Tom Embury-Dennis
The Independent
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 13:45 UTC

A tsunami warning has been issued after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck close to the coast of Japan.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the country's Meteorological Agency issued a warning for a 0.2 - 1 metre tsunami along the northwest coast of the main island of Honshu.

The quake struck around 30 miles southwest of the city of Sakata at 10.22pm on Tuesday, the agency reported, with the coastal areas of Yamagata and Niigata prefectures and the Noto area in Ishikawa Prefecture receiving tsunami advisories.

It said the quake's epicentre was fairly shallow, about six miles below the sea's surface.

Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage on the Earth's surface, but the agency said the expected "fluctuation" of waves was unlikely to cause damage.

Lightning kills man in Sofia, Bulgaria - second such incident in 2 days

The Sofia Globe
Tue, 18 Jun 2019 11:00 UTC

A 47-year-old man died in Bulgaria's capital city Sofia on the evening of June 17 after being struck by lightning, emergency services confirmed.

The man was walking his dog in Sofia's Lyulin 6 residential area when the incident happened. The dog also died.

Emergency medical services spokesperson Katya Sungarska told Bulgarian National Television that a call had been received at 8.17pm about the incident, and an ambulance had reached the man within eight minutes.

Comment: Elsewhere across the world in the past week lightning strikes have killed 7 people in Bangladesh, 2 individuals in Kashmir and 12 cattle in Panama.

Two strong shallow earthquakes hit southwest China, at least 12 dead (UPDATE)

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 19:38 UTC

Two strong earthquakes shook the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Monday, killing at least one person in a part of the country frequently affected by strong tremors.

The first magnitude 5.9 quake was followed around 30 minutes later by one registering 5.2, both at a depth of 10 km (six miles) and centered near Changning county, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Chinese state media said shaking was felt in major cities in the region, including in the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu and the metropolis of Chongqing.

Comment: Update: The South China Morning Post on the 18th of June also reported that 10,000 buildings were damaged and 100,000 people affected with 134 injured.

Severe weather churns up tornadoes, unleashes powerful winds across central US

Adriana Navarro
AccuWeather.com
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:28 UTC

© National Weather Service
A wooden beam impaled the windshield of this car in the EF2 tornado that struck Oakville, Iowa, Saturday evening.

Another round of tornadoes struck the central United States from North Dakota and Oklahoma to Indiana during the weekend.

Saturday held 29 preliminary tornado reports from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, but there have been no reported injuries or fatalities as of Monday morning.

Severe storms produced three tornadoes, two of which were confirmed EF2 tornadoes in Des Moines County, Iowa, that downed trees, power lines, destroyed outbuildings and "severely damaged a house off its foundation," according to an NWS storm survey. The third tornado was a confirmed EF0 west of Mediapolis.

The two EF2 tornadoes struck Oakville, Iowa, where one reached peak wind speeds of 120 mph. It destroyed a farm building, threw farm equipment 40 yards and moved a pickup truck about 20 yards, according to the NWS storm survey.

The second EF2 tornado destroyed a big farm. The survey photos from both tornadoes show wooden beams torn asunder and scattered across a field, a windshield impaled by a wooden pole and farm equipment flipped on its side.

Pit bulls involved in attack that killed woman in Bakersfield, California

Bayan Wang
turnto23.com
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 18:47 UTC

Officials confirm that three dogs fatally attacked a woman, who was found dead in a Costco parking lot Sunday morning, in Northwest Bakersfield.

Bakersfield Police Department spokesman Nathan McCauley said one Pit bull and one mixed breed escaped from a nearby business before the attack. The third dog was a stray Pit bull.

The woman, who has not been identified, was in her late 30s to early 40s and is a Bakersfield resident. She was found by a bystander shortly after 6 a.m Sunday morning, but officials say the attack appeared to have happened several hours prior to their arrival.

All three dogs were located and will be euthanized by animal control, according to officials.

Underground fire triggers panic in Uttar Pradesh, India

Deccan Herald
Sat, 15 Jun 2019 18:27 UTC

An underground fire in Mohammadi range forests of Uttar Pradesh left scores of neighbouring villagers panicked and puzzled.

Smoke was seen gushing out through the cracks in the ground and at some places land had turned into embers, said residents of Bela Pahara and Muda Galib villages in South Kheri forest division.

72-year-old Hukum Singh of Muda Galib said he has never been witness to such a scene. He feared that the fire may damage his crops.

Another villager, Bhai Lal (75), termed the scene as a natural miracle, which he had never heard of or seen earlier. Some villagers also mistook it as a volcanic incident.