As the Empire crumples under its own hubris, and as the flames of discontent spread amid rumors of world war, planetary upheaval continues unabated. This month's Hurricane Matthew will probably be remembered as the year's worst storm event in the US (and elsewhere), but in September two other storms, Hermine and Julia - one of them Florida's first hurricane since 2005, and the other the first such storm to ever form directly over the Sunshine State - inundated the coastal US Southeast.

A series of cyclones also brought wave after wave of flooding to southeastern Australia, breaking rainfall records dating back to the country's foundation in the 19th century, and bringing the country as a whole its third wettest winter on record. Meanwhile multiple typhoons in the northwest Pacific battered the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan. 50% stronger today than 40 years ago, the strongest of these cyclonic storms - Category 5 Meranti - was the strongest anywhere in the world so far this year, and second only to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan in the record books.

In addition to the walls of water brought by these large storms, local downbursts brought record-breaking rainfall, causing severe flash-flooding that washed away cars, homes and people in parts of the US, Mexico, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, and China. Oklahoma, which never experienced earthquakes until recently, last month felt its strongest yet. A record-strong earthquake also hit South Korea, while a strong quake in Skopje, Macedonia, damaged buildings and sent residents into a panic.

Multiple volcanic eruptions, mass fish kills, whale beachings and meteor fireball events round off another eventful month of Earth Changes...

A hiker who was attacked by a bear in the Angeles National Forest north of Sierra Madre on Monday said he is "fortunate" to have survived the terrifying attack.

Dan Richman, 54, spoke exclusively to KTLA late Monday saying he came face to face with two bears while out alone for a short hike, 2 miles up the Mount Wilson Trail.

"All of a sudden I saw this bear standing on its hind legs and I'd never seen a bear in person before, I was pretty freaked out," Richman said.

Thinking the stance was a sign of aggression, Richman backed away from the bear, not realizing a second bear was to his left. That second bear attacked, according to Sierra Madre Police Chief Larry Giannone.

Richman began to yell at the top of his lungs in an attempt to scare the bear away, and it seemed to work. Just as Richman was thinking of running past the bear, it went after him.

A snowfall warning has ended in Saskatoon but remains in place in other parts of Saskatchewan as crews continue to cleanup from a record Oct. 5 snowfall.

According to Environment Canada, 30 centimetres of snow had fallen in Saskatoon as of Thursday afternoon.

At least 17 centimetres fell on Wednesday, unofficially breaking a century old record for that day, when 5.6 centimetres was recorded on Oct. 5, 2016.

Environment Canada stopped measuring snowfall in Saskatoon in 2007, meaning the record cannot officially be broken.

The major low pressure system that brought an early snowfall to many parts of the province is now weakening, with another two to four centimetres expected to fall before tapering off to a few flurries Thursday evening.

Pictures don't do it justice. That's the reason many people drove up and walked to Bingham Drive in Fayetteville to see, for themselves, the massive sinkhole in the roadway.

Hurricane Matthew unleashed a fury of wind and water; opening at least, a quarter of a mile hole across the road.

"It looks like something out of a movie," said Fayetteville resident, Laura Dillenger.

Her neighbor, Petra Turner, drove down with her to capture the moment of their cell phones.

"Whoa, whoa. I've never seen anything like that before," Turner exclaimed.

TV crews, dads with their kids, cousins daring each other to get as close to the edge as possible; all in awe of the destruction Matthew left behind.

"I walk this road every day. Tomorrow, my walk will be short," laughed Lawrence Surles, a 33-year resident of Fayetteville.

The city landfill is closed until further notice after heavy rain and flooding from Hurricane Matthew created a Grand Canyon of sorts there.

Water filled up a quarter-mile ditch that runs around the site off Centerville Turnpike, then spilled over into a borrow pit and caused "extensive damage," according to the Department of Public Works.

The ditch, which used to be 4 feet deep, now bottoms out at 30 feet.

A concrete-block bathroom was washed away, along with an exit road at the landfill and eight sections of 36-inch pipe. A pump that was in the pit has disappeared. An excavator and a horizontal grinder - two large pieces of construction equipment - are submerged up to their cabs.

Electricity has been shut off at the site, and the city has dammed up the water going into the borrow pit to slow the flow, said Drew Lankford, public works spokesman. Extra pumps have been added to drain the pit. The road will also need to be repaired.

"It's going to be several days before we're up and running," Lankford said.

Residents in Somerset were in for a surprise this morning, when they spotted what could easily be mistaken for a UFO in the sky.

The rare atmospheric phenomenon is a strange cloud formation, known as fallstreak, or hole-punch clouds.

Experts say the stunning clouds that look like a brushstrokes are caused by a rare - but rather ordinary - atmospheric occurrence.

The bizarre clouds were snapped over Shepton Mallet, in Somerset.

These unfamiliar clouds form when temperatures are below freezing, but water droplets in the clouds have yet to freeze due to a lack of ice particles.

When ice particles form quickly, it causes a domino effect as the water droplets connect with the crystals, which get heavier and then start to fall all of a sudden - leaving a large hole in the cloud.

Britain is facing a "winter of flooding" with high winds and heavy rain threatening to batter the country over the next few months. Stormy weather is due to hit the UK later this month and forecasters have warned of the first named storm of the season within weeks. They say Scotland and the north will be in the firing line for the severe wet weather this winter.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said the entire country should prepare for "damaging winds" through winter. He warned: "A stormy weather pattern will set in before wintertime with active weather during the second half of October across the United Kingdom." Mr Reppert added: "At least one named windstorm is expected during this time before a lull in November. However, storm systems may still bring locally heavy rainfall at times during the month. The most active period of weather will be during the official winter months from December through February."

Brits have been told to expect a choppy run up to Christmas with wet and windy weather stretching through the New Year.

The United States may have avoided the brunt of Hurricane Matthew's deadly rain and wind storms, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Southeast coast from receiving severe damage. After Hurricane Matthew rolled through the Caribbean and killed nearly 900 people in Haiti, the storm continued along the US Southeastern coast, pummeling states like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina all weekend.

At least 19 people have been killed in the US by the hurricane across four Southeast states according to authorities. At least eight people were killed in North Carolina; three people were killed in Georgia; six people were killed in Florida; and at least two people were killed in South Carolina.

Local residents may have underestimated the severity of Hurricane Matthew, because it was downgraded to a Category 3 just before hitting landfall in Florida on Friday. It was again downgraded to a Category 1 when it hit South Carolina on Sunday. Regardless of its categorization, Hurricane Matthew still wreaked havoc in the areas it touched. "What those categories don't include is how water can kill," said North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in an interview with the New York Times.

In North Carolina—the state to receive the worst parts of the storm in the US—more than 1,000 people had to be rescued on Sunday, and more than 3,000 people were moved to shelters. Nearly 770,000 people across North Carolina were left without power. The storm has left more than 2 million businesses and homes without power along the Southeastern coast.

Annual Big Butterfly Count records lowest ever number of usually prolific species despite the relatively warm, dry summer

If you think you saw fewer butterflies than ever this British summer, you are probably correct: the Big Butterfly Count has recorded its lowest number of common species since records began.

Normally ubiquitous butterflies such as the gatekeeper, comma and small copper experienced their worst summers in the history of the count, which is run by Butterfly Conservation and began in 2010.

Scientists said the low number of butterflies is "a shock and a mystery" because this summer was warmer than average and much drier in England than the previous worst year for butterflies, 2012, which was unusually cold and wet.

"The drop in butterfly numbers this summer has been a shock," said Richard Fox of Butterfly Conservation. "When we have cold, wet summers, as in 2012, we expect butterfly populations to plummet, but that wasn't the case this year.

The body of a whale found on a Pevensey Beach has been identified as the same species as the huge creature that famously washed up in almost the exact same place in 1865.

The 50ft (15m) remains were discovered on Friday (October 7) at Normans Bay by Jez Asfour while out walking his dog.

Rob Deaville, of the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, said that it was most likely to be a Finback Whale, the second largest type of the mammal after the Blue Whale.

Mr Deaville will be collecting bone samples under license, as it is illegal to take any part of a dead whale without one. He said, "We do not normally get access to this tissue."

The zoologist said that it is impossible to tell how the creature died but he was confident that the rope, found wrapped around its tail, was attached to the body after its death.

A 71ft (21m) Finback Whale, which weighed as much as eight double decker buses, washed up on the beach at Pevensey Bay on Novermber 13, 1865.

Reports say as many as 40,000 people flocked to see the creature, the skeleton of which is still on display at Cambridge Museum of Zoology.

For many, in an age before television or the internet, it was the first time they had ever seen a whale.