Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Fresh storms hit Queensland - Australian flooding in photos

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© AP Photo/Anthony SkermanA wallaby stands on a large round hay bale, trapped by rising flood waters outside the town of Dalby in Queensland, Australia on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010
Heavy rains fell in eastern Australia on Thursday, bringing fresh misery to flood-hit communities as the mayor of the flooded city of Rockhampton warned it could take up to a year to recover from the worst flooding in decades.

Officials were only beginning to see the scope of the damage as river levels across Queensland started dropping despite new thunderstorms. Floodwaters were expected to stay high in many areas for at least another week and officials warned evacuated residents to stay away from their waterlogged homes.

"It's important for the community to remember that this event is not over yet," said Brad Carter, mayor of the inundated city of Rockhampton, which has evacuated 500 people. "Those residents who were required to evacuate their homes will not be able to return to their homes until the flood waters recede."

Four thousand people across Queensland have been evacuated from their homes since driving rains that began just before Christmas left much of the region under a sea of murky water. Around 1,200 homes have been inundated, with another 10,700 suffering damage in the flood zone, an area greater than France and Germany combined.

Butterfly

'Aflockalypse': Here's Why We Should Really Be Concerned About the Huge Bird and Fish Die-off

dead blackbird
© Erix via Flickr
By now, we've all seen the news reports of the "Aflockalypse." The New Year came in with a bang in Beebe, Arkansas when thousands of blackbirds fell from the sky. As news reports of the eerie incident spread, similar stories began surfacing all over the world: Massive fish kills by the thousands in Brazil, New Zealand, the Arkansas River and the Chesapeake; more bird deaths in Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden; and tens of thousands of dead crabs (aptly named dead devil crabs) washing ashore in the U.K.

2011 seems to have gotten off to an ominous start, but so far no one credible has come up with a theory to link all these occurrences together. They appear to be mostly isolated catastrophes. Sadly, this kind of stuff happens a fair bit, and in our uber-connected world, it's getting easier and easier to share when they do. Although I do admit that some of the purported explanations thus far sound kind of far-fetched. The 100 or so dead jackdaws in Sweden were explained by a veterinarian to a local news outlet: "Our main theory is that the birds were scared away because of the fireworks and landed on the road, but couldn't fly away from the stress and were hit by a car."

One car? Really? I can't imagine being the driver who kills 100 birds simultaneously. But the other incidents, perhaps, have better explanations that are largely due to either weather (cold snap) or environmental factors (fireworks, lightening, disease). As for Britain's crabs -- well, it turns out that this is the third year in a row it has happened, which may or may not be comforting, depending on how you look at things.

The only upside to these die-offs has been the rapt attention of readers, which is great; however, no offense to jackdaws and dead devil crabs, but there are a whole lot of other species on the brink that could use the publicity.

Question

UK: Trees Felled in Attempt to Halt Lethal Disease

Tens of thousands of trees are being felled on National Trust-owned forests in the southwest of England in an attempt to stop a disease spreading which threatens to destroy up to 100 species of hardwoods and conifers.

The disease, known as "sudden oak death", was discovered in shrubs in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset five years ago after it was introduced by an infected plant from the United States. It has also been found in Ireland.

It has since been discovered in the larch, a conifer, and most significantly in rhododendrons, which have defied efforts over decades by foresters to get rid of the pest that was brought into the UK in the 19th century.

Nearly 60,000 larch trees are being felled in two forests in Somerset in an attempt to stop the spread of the airborne fungus, which has already been found in more than 2,000 hectares of land in the region.

Bizarro Earth

Magnetic Polar Caps Shifting

Magnetic North Is On The Move


Igloo

Deep south may see significant snow, including Atlanta

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A surface low will develop in Eastern Texas by later Sunday. This will likely bring a snow belt beginning from Dallas/Fort Worth eastward and through the beginning of next week significant snowfall may be possible across the Deep South.

It is quite likely that if the current pattern holds, cold air advecting intot he air on top of a very cold air mass in the mid-levels will make for heavy snowfall. These numbers are not a normal number seen.

In fact, this is quite opposite of La Nina's pattern and a realistic six to eight inches of snow will be possible through Southern Arkansas, Central MS, Central AL, Central GA, and Western SC and the southern range.

Radar

Weather radar shows something unusual around time birds fell

The National Weather Service in North Little Rock examined a speck on the radar that showed up around the same time all the birds fell out of the sky from alleged trauma on New Year's Eve.


Monkey Wrench

Capuchin monkeys choose the best tools to crack nuts

Wild capuchin monkeys are very selective about the best way to crack a nut, according to scientists.

Researchers from the University of Georgia, US, filmed the wild monkeys selecting the correct anvil and hammer for the job. The footage reveals that the animals are "selective about the materials they use in tool use", say the scientists.

The research team have reported their findings in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The monkeys use pits in logs as anvils, to lodge the nuts in place while they use large stones as hammers to bash through the shells. In the footage, the monkey can be seen "weighing up" the most appropriately sized pit.


Bad Guys

British government warned by Met Office that supercold was coming, winter forecast kept secret from public

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© Gareth Fuller/PAAshford International station in Kent on December 1st 2010
The Met Office knew that Britain was facing an early and exceptionally cold winter but failed to warn the public, hampering preparations for some of the coldest weather on record.

In October the forecaster privately warned the Government - with whom it has a contract - that Britain was likely to face an extremely cold winter.

It kept the prediction secret, however, after facing severe criticism over the accuracy of its long-term forecasts.

The Met Office eventually issued a public warning about the early onset of winter a month later, just days before snow and ice covered much of Britain and temperatures plummeted to the lowest on record.

Motoring organisations and passenger groups said yesterday that the delay hampered preparations for winter.

It has also been disclosed that the BBC has decided to publish independent assessments of the Met Office's performance on its website.

Bizarro Earth

Quebec Bird Deaths Stump Wildlife Officials

Dead Pigeons
© Daniel Mallard/QMI AgencySylvain Turmel is wondering why he’s been picking up dead pigeons for more than two weeks on his farm in Saint-Augustine-de-Desmaures.

Montreal - More than 80 pigeons have keeled over and died at a farm near Quebec City for unknown reasons, the latest in a string of mysterious animal deaths around the world.

Environmental officials in the province say there's no connection to a similar case in Arkansas, but Sylvain Turmel is wondering why he's been picking up dead pigeons for more than two weeks on his farm in Saint-Augustine-de-Desmaures.

The first dead bird was found on Dec.18. He's since found more bodies on his roof and inside the barn.

"I was stunned," he said.

"I went to see my tenant to ask whether he'd been feeding them poison. He ended helping me pick up 25 corpses. In the time it took us to collect them, five more had fallen. Authorities thought it might be gas. But that's not possible."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said tests are currently being performed at the animal pathology lab in the provincial capital.

"The cause right now isn't known," said Nicolas Begin. "It's not related to what happened in the U.S. (But) we don't see this sort of thing every day and we're treating this as a serious matter."

Igloo

US: Winter storm bringing more snow to blizzard-weary North

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© Reuters/Lucas JacksonSnow falling in Times Square, January 7, 2011.
Snow fell across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states on Friday, bringing several inches of fresh accumulation to a region that has scarcely dug out from the Christmas weekend blizzard.

The latest winter storm will drop snow from the Great Lakes east to the Atlantic seaboard and New England throughout Friday and into early Saturday, forecasters said.

The Northeast could see one to five inches of snow from Maryland north into Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, forecasters said. Two to four inches accumulation was likely in New York City, they said.