Earth Changes

Mysterious lights reported in Manchester's night sky

Adam John
Manchester Evening News
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 14:13 UTC

Residents in parts of Greater Manchester say the truth is out there... after snapping what they say were 'mysterious lights' in the sky. People living in Tameside and in Gorton claim to have seen a strange phenomenon in the night sky.

Mitesh Tailor, 31, said he was amazed to spot 'glowing lights' above Ashton-under-Lyne's Hartshead Estate on Friday evening. HR officer Mitesh first spotted the lights from his bedroom window on Friday, which he says have resumed even more brightly on Saturday and Sunday nights. Intrigued by the phenomenon, Mitesh took photographs of what he saw shortly after midnight on Sunday.

He said: "At first I didn't think much of it, on Friday I thought it was just normal but last night it was a lot brighter. "It's not the moon, that is on the other side of my house. They weren't artificial lights either, the area is really dark."

And in a separate spotting, Gorton resident Zac Weaver also snapped images which show a strong milky light coming through the clouds. Zac explained: "The light abve Gorton is back and as you can see in three of the photos there's actually a little bright light above the tree that seems to move. "This can't be the stone roses events as that ended about an hour ago. And I know it wasn't because of the event becasue the light hasn't been there the past couple of days."

USGS: Magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

USGS
Thu, 16 Jun 2016 16:26 UTC

Location

Time

2016-06-21 16:26:34 (UTC)
2016-06-21 12:26:34 (UTC-04:00) in your timezone
Times in other timezones

Nearby Places

1813.0 km (1126.5 mi) ENE of Grande Anse, Guadeloupe
1835.0 km (1140.2 mi) ENE of Saint-Francois, Guadeloupe
1838.0 km (1142.1 mi) ENE of Le Moule, Guadeloupe
1847.0 km (1147.7 mi) ENE of Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe
1853.0 km (1151.4 mi) ENE of Saint John's, Antigua and Barbuda

UK has already experienced more thunderstorms this year than its average for a whole year

Paul Brown
The Guardian
Sun, 19 Jun 2016 13:06 UTC

Lightning strikes a plane coming into land at Heathrow Airport on 27 April 2016.

A rumble of thunder is always a cue to unplug computers in our district. Everyone remembers when the local power lines got struck by lightning a decade ago and wiped out the innards of most computers, even some that were switched off but still plugged into the mains. New computers are supposed to be fitted with anti-surge devices but anyone ever seriously inconvenienced by a lightning strike is unlikely to take the risk again.

Last week's daily thundery showers meant being unplugged a great deal of the time, which is not a problem with modern computer batteries, but which led to discussions about how often the UK gets this number of thunderstorms. It turns out that by the weekend most of the country had already exceeded the average for a whole year.

Update: Floods and landslides kill 20 in southern China; 197,000 people displaced

Stephen Chen
South China Morning Post
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:14 UTC

Millions affected and 20 missing as violent weather collapses homes - and authorities warn more flooding likely to hit Yangtze area later this month

Floods and landslides killed more than 20 people - and displaced 197,000 - in southern China over the weekend.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Monday that 3.7 million people in seven provinces, including Hubei and Sichuan, and Chongqing municipality, had been affected. Twenty people were missing.

Some victims died when their homes collapsed in the storms.

The department of civil affairs in Anhui said three elderly farmers were killed in the province.

They included a husband and wife in Susong county whose house collapsed. About 70cm of rain fell in some areas of the province in two days.

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake recorded near Namatanai, Papua New Guinea

Island Crisis
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 18:31 UTC

An earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 6.1 has been recorded near Namatanai, Papua New Guinea on 21 June 2016 12:12:09.

The earthquake epicenter was located at precisely 67km WNW of Namatanai, Papua New Guinea and at a depth of approximately 366.37 km.

A provisional tsunami alert have been issued for the region following this earthquake.

Other details about the earthquake were not immediately available, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Sloth bear mauls farmer to death in Telangana, India

The New Indian Express
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 18:04 UTC

The bear lying down next to the body after making the kill at Guntanpally village in Mahbubnagar on Monday

In yet another instance of man-animal conflict, a bear mauled a farmer to death when he went to his agricultural field on Monday. The incident occurred at Guntanpally village in Achampeta mandal.

Tokya Naik, the farmer, went to his farmland on the outskirts of the village on Monday morning to check his crops, when the bear pounced on him.

According to sources, the local farmers had sown seeds for Kharif season after rains, but bears were straying from the nearby forest and destroying the crops. Farmers had put up nets around the fields to prevent bears from entering the fields.

It is said that the bear got stuck in the net and when Naik went to the fields, it pounced on him and mauled him to death.

After killing the farmer, the bear slept besides the body for a couple of hours. Villagers, who went to the field, found the bear and informed the forest officials.

Circumhorizontal arc appears over Mount St. Helens in Washington

Lizzy Acker
The Oregonian
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 09:54 UTC

On Sunday, which happened to be the day of the Pride Parade in Portland, what seemed like a magical rainbow cloud appeared over Mount St. Helens.

According to the Andy Bryant, hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Portland, it was in fact science, not magic, that painted the sky rainbow colors yesterday.

Also, it wasn't a "rainbow cloud." Instead, it was something called a "circumhorizontal arc."

Circumhorizontal arcs are caused by a combination of crystals in clouds and the angle of the sun.

Bryant says circumhorizontal arcs are actually not that uncommon in the summer in Oregon. "Sometimes you can get multiple arcs in different positions in the sky," he says, "depending on how much of a cloud layer there is and on the type of ice crystals."

"It's kind of cool stuff," he adds.

Sinkhole swallows pond at Kentucky golf course

Monique Blair
WKYT
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:24 UTC

Golfers and employees who were at the Old Bridge Golf Course Saturday were in for a surprise.

"It's about three and a half feet wide and about 20 feet deep," Course Superintendent Cody Pollard said.

Pollard says on Saturday, a sinkhole opened under a pond that surrounds the first hole on the course, swallowing most of the pond water.

"My brother called me and said, 'you should look at this'. The pond has literally sunk and there is no water left in it," Pollard explained.

"I came out here and looked at it and there was a geyser throwing water about 15 feet up," Pollard said.

The sinkhole is not affecting the actual course, so golfers can continue to play.

"Everyone thinks it's the highlight of the golf course and now it's gone within a matter of minutes," Pollard said.

Duck down! Lightning bolt likely kills 6 flying mallards in Regina, Canada

Kevin O'Connor
cbc.ca
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 15:12 UTC

After a flash of lightning, three ducks fell from the sky and landed on this roof in south Regina on Saturday night. Three more dead ducks were found in nearby yards.

© Rick Spaeth/CBC
After a flash of lightning, three ducks fell from the sky and landed on this roof in south Regina on Saturday night. Three more dead ducks were found in nearby yards.

No visible sign of injury to 6 mallards in Regina neighbourhood

A huge crack of lightning was followed by multiple "thumps" on a Regina roof Saturday night — and when the sun came up, there were dead ducks all around.

It happened around 9:30 p.m. CST on the 3400 block of Portnall Ave. in the south end of the city.

A storm was underway and for several minutes there was intense thunder and lightning.

After one particularly brilliant flash of lightning, the ducks dropped from the sky, neighbours said.

Three landed on a roof and three more ended up in yards in the area.

Neighbours said there was no obvious sign of injury to the mallards, so it's still not clear what killed them.