Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 19 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Sun

UK: Hottest February day ever as temperatures soar to 20C/68F

crocuses

Thousands of crocuses have started to bloom weeks early after unusually high temperatures at National Trust's Wallington Hall in Northumberland
Today is the warmest February day on record in the UK with temperatures reaching 20.3C in Ceredigion, on the west coast of Wales, the Met Office has announced.

It is also the first time the country has seen a high over 20C during winter, according to the weather service.

The previous all-time record for February - 19.7C - was logged in Greenwich in 1998.

The balmy weather has been enjoyed across Britain, with places as far north as Carlisle seeing the mercury soar into the high teens today.

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesman, told The Independent earlier on Monday that the rising temperatures were putting the UK-wide record within touching distance.

Comment: It would be premature of the global warmists to declare victory because, while Northern Europe may be basking in unseasonably warm temperatures, across the pond record cold is causing chaos: 'Bomb cyclone' strikes eastern US: 550,000 still powerless from fierce winds


As we've seen in the past, these wild swings in the seasons are merely a prelude of what's to come. After all, this time last year the UK was being battered by the "beast from the east":


As we enter what appears to be a period of extreme cooling, we can find clues for what to expect from previous mini ice ages in recorded history. As noted in The Little Ice Age and Europe's Encounter with North America: A Cold Welcome:
And the reason for this is the harshness of the said country, with the cold that lasts for eight months of winter, to the point, as he has stated, that the rivers freeze over, and the people are always shivering by the fire and there is little firewood...
And this witness has heard that after the said winter come four months summer, when the heat is almost worse than the cold winter; and so the saying there is, winter for eight months and hell for four [ocho meses de invierno, cuatro de infierno]
See also: And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?


Windsock

'Bomb cyclone' strikes eastern US: 550,000 still powerless from fierce winds

Lake Erie ice
© Tara Walton/The Canadian Press via AP
A massive build up of ice is seen after being pushed onto the shore of Mather Park, near the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ont., Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. A windstorm Sunday broke an ice boom in Lake Erie and allowed the ice, which was floating on the water at the mouth of the Niagara River, to spill over the retaining wall and onto the shore and the roadway above.
Ferocious winds from a potent "bomb cyclone" roared across the eastern United States, and 550,000 homes and businesses were still without power Monday.

At midday, nearly 80 million people were under high-wind warnings or advisories across parts of 14 states, according to the National Weather Service. At least 1,200 flights were canceled Monday, according to FlightAware.

Wind gusts of up to 81 mph were reported from the storm, toppling trees and power lines. Giant chunks of ice spilled over the banks of the Niagara River across from Buffalo on Sunday, creating bizarre, 30-foot-tall ice mounds. At one point early Monday, 650,000 were without power.

The storm was the same system that earlier had brought snow to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, record snow to Flagstaff, Arizona, a blizzard and bitter cold to the upper Midwest and floods and deadly tornadoes in the South. It is called a bomb cyclone because it rapidly intensified after a dramatic drop in atmospheric pressure.

Over the weekend, a woman was killed when a tornado hit Mississippi, and a man died when he drove into floodwaters in Tennessee, officials said.

Knoxville was among the hardest hit cities in Tennessee when a record-setting amount of rain and devastating floods swamped the state. "There were no areas of Knoxville that weren't affected," Knox County Commissioner Larsen Jay said.


Binoculars

Finland's border patrol tweets phenomenal photo of island mirage at -25C

finland island mirage
© Twitter / Lapin rajavartiosto
A Finnish border guard was, quite literally, stopped in their tracks Sunday after a 'new island' appeared in the middle of the frozen Lake Inari without warning.

Finland's Lapland Border Patrol tweeted images of the strange, apparently geological, phenomenon; an impressive feat considering temperatures in the region had plummeted as low as -25 degrees Celsius and there was no sight nor sound of any volcanic activity in the area that might explain the sudden appearance of new rock formations, seemingly out of nowhere.

It was merely an optical illusion, however, as one commenter pointed out on Twitter. Light behaves differently when passing through atmospheric layers, which can lead to mirage-like effects along the horizon, reflecting and refracting distant landscapes in mind-bending ways.

Comment: According to Wiki it seems mirages in the Arctic may be more common than we think:
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Fata Morgana mirages may have played a role in a number of unrelated "discoveries" of arctic and antarctic land masses which were later shown not to exist. Icebergs frozen into the pack ice, or the uneven surface of the ice itself, may have contributed to the illusion of distant land features.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center details how these mirages are formed in the Arctic:
Mirages and optical illusions

Mirages and other optical illusions occur in the Arctic because of special atmospheric conditions that bend light. A superior mirage occurs when an image of an object appears above the actual object. Superior mirages sometimes appear in the Arctic because of the weather condition known as a temperature inversion, where cold air lies close to the ground with warmer air above it. Since cold air is denser than warm air, it bends light towards the eyes of someone standing on the ground, changing how a distant object appears.
Although the Finnish coast guard could be forgiven for assuming it was either a mirage or a new island, because nearly every day unusual events are being documented that confirm our planets changing atmosphere, and its geography. But we can't say for sure whether or not this mirage is typical for the region or reflective of these new conditions:


Windsock

Record-breaking winds batter coastal cities of Croatia

Gale-force winds topple trees, cause power cuts and damage buildings along the Adriatic coastline
© Reuters
Gale-force winds topple trees, cause power cuts and damage buildings along the Adriatic coastline
Unusually strong gale-force winds swept through Croatia's Adriatic coastline on Saturday, toppling trees, knocking out power, damaging cars and shattering windows.

The northeasterly bora wind is a cold, dry wind which blows down from the mountains on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea.

Land, air and sea traffic were disrupted and several small wind-driven fires erupted on the central Dalmatian coast. One firefighter was slightly injured while tackling a blaze.

Croatia's weather bureau said that wind speeds in the region of the Adriatic port of Split reached 177 kilometres/hour (breaking the previous record) overnight, with gusts up to 191km/h recorded in the port town of Makarska. There were no reports of major injuries.

The areas most affected included the coastal cities of Split and Dubrovnik (winds touched 158km/h), where firefighters worked all day to clean up the debris from falling trees, overturned vehicles, and wind-swept roof tiles.


Comment: See also:


Airplane

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Bent jet streams push passenger jet to record speed

Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner broke speed records.

Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner broke speed records.
Another indication Earth's Jet Streams are being affected by the Eddy Grand Solar Minimum is a commercial aircraft full of passengers set a new speed record as the jet stream above the US pushed tail winds allowing the jet to break the sound barrier.

Dragon aurora, auroral jet upper atmospheric lightning, winter typhoon Pacific, record warm in Scotland and 120 mph Bura winds across eastern Mediterranean. Strangely behaving jet streams are an signal the magnetosphere is weakening.


Sources

Cloud Precipitation

4 dead after heavy rain hits Luanda, Angola

Bridge connecting Bairro Popular/ Palanca neighbourhoods in Luanda collapsed
© PEDRO PARENTE
Bridge connecting Bairro Popular/ Palanca neighbourhoods in Luanda collapsed
Heavy rain in Angola's capital Luanda has left at least 4 people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed.

Angola News Agency ANGOP said that the heavy rain fell from late 21 February until 22 February. The rain caused a bridge to collapse as well as destroying hundreds of homes.

Four people are thought to have died when houses collapsed. Two deaths were reported in Kilamba Kiaxi municipality, and the two others Ingombota district.

Heavy rain and flooding regularly affects Luanda and surrounding areas between February and April. Last year 6 people died, over 90 homes were destroyed and 545 families displaced in March.

Attention

101km/h winds batter Malta, blowing fish out of the sea and damaging buildings

Malta wind fish
© NewsFlare
Residents brave storm to collect piles of fish blown ashore
Malta residents have been filmed taking fish from the road after winds of about 100km/h hit the country on Sunday.
Updated Sunday 7.20pm with Enemalta information

Gale-force winds lashed Malta early on Sunday morning, uprooting trees, demolishing walls and damaging power lines, but no injuries were reported, a police spokesman told Times of Malta.

The winds, which reached gusts of up to 101 km/hour, caused damage to electricity networks and forced road closures across the whole island. Authorities advised people to stay indoors while Malta Public Transport warned of delays on all its routes.

Civil Protection Department officials were called out to 300 separate sites to clear roads, remove dangerous walls and evacuate people from flooded residences.

Comment: Extreme winds have been causing havoc in many areas of the globe this week:


Tornado1

Super Typhoon Wutip becomes the strongest February typhoon in West Pacific Ocean

Super Typhoon Wutip
© NOAA/RAMMB
Himawari-8 infrared image of Super Typhoon Wutip taken at 7:00 am EST Saturday, February 23, 2019. At the time, Wutip was a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds--the strongest February typhoon on record.

'Taiwan's Shield' expected to fend off Super Typhoon Wutip


Wutip is the first super typhoon recorded by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) for the month of February since 1911, but forecasters believe "Taiwan's Shield" will hold up yet again and prevent it from impacting the country directly.

As of 2 a.m. this morning, Super Typhoon Wutip had a radius of 220 kilometers, and was located 2,350 kilometers east-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Eluanbi moving north-northwest at a speed of 8 kilometers per hour (kph). Wutip was packing maximum sustained winds of 183 kph and gusts of up of to 226 kph.

Over the weekend, Guam avoided the brunt of the storm as it veered to the southwest of the island, only coming within 165 miles at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Heavy rain and strong winds were reported on Guam that day, but other than a few downed signs and tree limbs, no structural damage was incurred, reported The Guam Daily Post.

Snowflake

Snow and gale force winds sweep across Greece

‘Oceanis’ Storm Buries Northern Greece in Snow

‘Oceanis’ Storm Buries Northern Greece in Snow
Temperatures dropped by around 10 degrees Celsius as the cold front "Oceanis" settled over Greece on Saturday, bringing icy cold weather that has disrupted both road and sea transport.

Gale force winds of 8-9 Beaufort, with gusts reaching up to 10 on the Beaufort scale, have led to the cancellation of all scheduled ferry departures from the ports of Piraeus, Rafina and Lavrio on Saturday afternoon, as well as hydrofoil ferries to the Saronic Gulf ports. Also closed are the Rio-Antirrio, Kyllini-Kefallonia and Kyllini-Zakynthos ferry links.

A scheduled journey from Volos to the Sporades islands in the Aegean was cancelled on Saturday and the Keramoti-Kavala-Thassos, Alexandroupolis-Samothrace ferry lines were closed.


Arrow Down

Two engineers die in Kishtwar landslide, Kashmir

landslide
Two engineers engaged with the Pakal Dul hydroelectric project in Kishtwar district were killed by a landslide on Friday evening.

The incident occurred around 40 km from the district headquarters near the Ikhala area in the Dachan tehsil of Kishtwar. A rescue operation was launched by the authorities and the bodies were recovered.

The deceased have been identified as senior mechanical engineer Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Jammu, and electric engineer Vijay Gupta, a resident of Udhampur.