Earth Changes
Since June 1 2018, NOAA has received reports of 282 dead ice seals in the Bering and Chukchi seas. In 2018, there were 119 ice seal strandings reported, while 163 have already reported this year. NOAA said they typically receive reports of about 29 ice seal strandings a year.
By mid-June this summer, communities along Alaska's western coast were noticing scores of dead ice seals.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has recorded 422,000 lightning strikes this year in the province, far above the 18-year average of 266,000. July alone saw 264,344 lightning strikes, said meteorologist Matt MacDonald.
"Leading into the summer people were on edge for another record wildfire season, given how dry it was this spring," he said.
In June, July and August — the meteorological summer — total rainfall was actually below normal in many parts of B.C. and it could have gone terribly wrong for our parched forests. But instead of long, warm spells punctuated by dry lightning storms, electrical activity was accompanied by rain.
The crew of RT's documentary channel, RTDoc, was out filming bears and walruses on the remote Chukotka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, when a large polar bear suddenly emerged on top of a slate hill, stunning the reporters. The journalists and their guide tried to fend off the animal as it stood just meters away, making loud noises and banging a spear against the rocks. The tactic seemed to work, as the bear left after a brief but intense standoff.
The time of the demise of the mammoths is also known as the Younger Dryas, a period of global cooling that lasted from 12,900 to 11,700 years ago (10,900 B.C. to 9,700 B.C.) during which surface temperatures dropped by approximately 7°C.
In theory, such a severe cooling should increase the volume of polar ice and, as a result, reduce sea level. However, during the Younger Dryas, sea levels rose 17 meters over more than a millennium, as illustrated by the graph below.
If the sea level rose while ice caps were building up, it's possible that the source of the water was external. But where could this water have come from?
Coincidentally or not, most of Mars' Northern hemisphere was once covered with water, and this ocean has mysteriously disappeared. So where did the Martian water go?

Stranded passengers in a railway station in Kolkata, India, in May after trains were canceled because of Cyclone Fani.
Up to 22m people are estimated to be displaced by the end of the year
A record seven million people were displaced by disasters in the first half of 2019, suggesting that mass displacement due to extreme weather events is "becoming the norm," according to a new report.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, which uses data from governments, United Nations humanitarian agencies, and media coverage to create its reports, concluded that nearly twice as many people were displaced in the first half of the year by weather events than by conflict and violence. The report was compiled before Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas - the numbers affected by that storm are still unclear.
IDMC estimates that the number of new displacements associated with weather events will reach 22m by the end of the year, more than tripling the current number, and making 2019 one of the worst years for climate displacement since records began.
Comment: Watch SOTT's monthly Earth Changes Summary for extreme weather events that are occurring worldwide these days.
SnowReportSA predicted that snowfalls would occur in the Western Cape from Thursday.
Although the snowfalls were confined to the higher peaks, some intrepid snow-followers still managed to find some significant snow-covered areas.
According to SnowReportSA, there won't be any further snowfalls over the weekend, but the current snowfall could last up to two days on the ground if the temperatures remain low.
The other two were rushed to a hospital but to no avail. They breathed their last in Sadar Hospital, Garwha on Thursday.
Garwha SDO Pradip Kumar said that it was raining and the youths tried to hide themselves under a tree. The trees are a good conductor of electricity. When the lightning hit it the tree the current was discharged upon the youths hiding under it.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said, "My heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones." Raghubar Das also announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased.
The quakes have all been within a couple miles of each other near Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains, the USGS earthquake monitoring system shows. None of the earthquakes caused damage or injuries, USGS said.
The biggest quake was a 2.5 magnitude temblor around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday about 2.5 miles southwest of Cherokee, according to the USGS.
- Sept. 7, 8:14 p.m.: 1.9 magnitude, 5 miles south of Cherokee
- Sept. 9, 4:21 a.m.: 1.4 magnitude, 3.1 miles south-southwest of Cherokee
- Sept. 9, 3:08 p.m.: 2.0 magnitude, 3.1 miles south-southwest of Cherokee
- Sept. 11, 8:13 p.m.: 2.3 magnitude, 3.7 miles south of Cherokee
- Sept. 11, 11:03 p.m.: 2.5 magnitude, 2.5 miles southwest of Cherokee
- Sept. 11, 11:14 p.m.: 2.1 magnitude, 3.7 miles south-southwest of Cherokee
Disturbing footage shows the animals, which have scorch marks on their stomachs, lying in a row on a farm in Texas after a thunderstorm.
Rancher Bobby Woody III said it was one of the 'wildest and craziest' things he had ever witnessed.
'When the lightning hit, it had such strong voltage, it basically jolted one cow in the middle of the field,' Woody wrote on Facebook.














Comment: Lightning strikes are occurring in record numbers everywhere:
210,000 lightning strikes recorded in Sweden this year, a six-fold increase on 2017